The Simón Bolívar Park witnessed for the first time an edition of the Estéreo Picnic Festival loaded with diverse emotions and with a great musical variety: rock, reggaeton, trap, hip hop, salsa, among other rhythms, which stirred up the thirteenth presentation of the most important in the last years of the country.
In many corners the festival vibrated in different ways. From very early on, an alloy of Blink-182 shirts of different colors, albums and the Californian band’s current tour began to be seen. Likewise, posters such as ‘Travis I’m pregnant’ and ‘Blink me’ rested on the floor so that, a few hours later, they were raised with the same strength that the public had when they were waiting for their arrival in the country in 2023. It is worth remembering that the band had to cancel their concert due to health problems of their drummer, Travis Barker.
The first minutes were for Caballos de Fuerza, a Colombian group that with its staging also invited the small but growing audience of the Johnnie Wallker stage, to see their audiovisual production ‘Desierto’, a post-apocalyptic film narrated in several parts.
“I am a walker.” Caballos de Fuerza spoke with EL TIEMPO
Photo: Horsepower
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Small bands on big stages
The afternoon warmed up, the sun was not far behind. The rays hit hard the sunscreens of people who put good amounts of cream on their foreheads.
Emerging bands, like Dinosaurs Died Yesterday, amassed fans on the Adidas stage. The spark hit the white tiles directly, which produced more intense heat. This is a project by singer-songwriter Mateo Romero, who guides his music through important elements such as his deep lyrics and his guitar.
However, for Bibiana and Sofía, two attendees, the heat did not melt the happiness they had because the small bands were given high-level stages. “It is very important who opens the festival each day, this is how Margarita always alive and Nicolás and the smokers became known.”
Hip hop and hand wobble
Ethnicity in the FEP.
Photo:Alejandro Zapata. TIME
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One of the moments that, without a doubt, excited hip hop followers was the presentation of La Etnnia, a Colombian group with more than 30 years of history. As the afternoon approached and the expectation increased, the performance of Kany, Kaiser and Ata, the main leaders of the band, finally arrived.
Through his rhymes and energy, it was inevitable that attendees would not sway their hands to the rhythm of hits like ‘La cradle al ataúd’ and ‘Manicomio 5-27’. “We are in Bogotá, in our house and we started this project more than 20 years ago, we never imagined that rap would reach these stages,” they expressed.
Ruzto’s presence was loaded with impressive illustrations. One of those moments was when giant lungs took over the stage screen. With this appearance, the message was clear: the time to play ‘Aire’ had arrived.
This artist’s surprises did not stop there, he also invited another exponent of the genre: Frank Takuma. “With one or ten we are going to break it,” said the Bogota rapper.
“We are stars because we do it better than anyone else,” that’s how Bello’s Antioquia Oblivion’s Mighty Trash, between jazz and hip hop, made the entire Colsubsidio stage raise its hands. The beats, the groping and the smoke ‘Ilegal’ accompanied songs like ‘I don’t remember’ and ‘R4pstar’.
Punk rock took over the FEP: attendees could not contain their tears
This is how the last night of the FEP 2024 was experienced.
Photo: Sergio Acero Yate. TIME
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The wait was soon going to come to an end. Many rock fans could not believe that, thanks to the FEP, their dreams were going to come sooner than they thought. Months after experiencing a Rock in the Park, March brought something unexpected: The Offspring, an American band that would perfectly fit into the billboard of the well-known event that also takes place in Simón Bolívar Park.
The night took over the Johnnie Walker stage. A few raindrops appeared during the minutes before the start. Despite the conditions, the punk rock band’s followers remained steadfast with what they had waited for so long: singing, playing and crying with their group.
With layers and raincoats at hand they began to cover their bodies so that the rain would not affect them. However, as if it were a miracle, against all odds and cloudy skies, the weather improved. From that moment on, the only concern was getting the best position to see them.
The song ‘Come Out and Play’ was the first one they started with. “We are excited to return to Colombia,” they expressed. During their ‘show’, hits like ‘The Kids Aren’t Alright’, ‘Pretty Fly’, ‘Self Esteem’ and ‘Why Don’t You Get a Job’ were not long in coming. The excitement was even so much that the audience’s jumps made the floor vibrate.
Blink 182, the most anticipated moment for many
Fabio Cubillos approached a few steps from the stage, with his guide cane and three more friends. He continued moving through the crowd that surrounded him, looking to find a good position to listen to Blink-182. Despite not seeing, his ears wanted to hear the American band as close as possible. “Everyone has been very receptive, the production too,” Cubillos extolled that he did not take off his staff and his friends for a single moment.
Darío is another of the people who attended the festival in a wheelchair, with his right hand he moves the chair and with his left he tries to take the best photo with the “Here and now”, giant letters that served as a meeting point throughout the festival. throughout the festival. “Simón Bolívar is cooler because he has the roads, it is easier to get from one place to the other.”
Thus spoke Zarathustra, with the symphonic poem by Richard Strauss, the Californian band made more than one’s hair stand on end when they felt the first symphonic vibrations of the long-awaited American group.
Anthem Part Two left more than one in the air with Travis’s first hits on the drums, who seemed to have done no harm to the broken finger that prevented him from attending the FEP a year ago.
In unison and with their cell phones without missing a single movement of Travis, Tom and Mark, the Johnnie Walker and their surroundings chanted countless times:
“… piss, …, piss, …,”.
Songs like ‘More Than You Know’, ‘Aliens Exist’ and the appearance of some alien dolls were the body of a concert that did not let up. The pogos were set up in various parts of the stage, they seemed like moving circles of many people in which kicks and pushes did not stop, some looked for objects that they had dropped, but the desire to continue in the style of Blink-182’s punk rock continued without stray.
It was time to finish and I couldn’t get through ‘Miss You’ without leaving most of us feeling uneasy. Some recovered from the pogos and others began to record one of the most moving final scenes of the show: a tribute to Taylor Hawkins, former Foo Fighters drummer. Cell phone flashlights expressed it all.
Finally, and after going through classics like ‘All The Small Things’, they sealed their presentation with ‘Dammit’ and the audience would be left with the last verse: ‘Well, I guess this is growing up’. “You’re… amazing guys, thank you Bogotá!
Travis advanced to the audience with the Colombian flag, threw one drumstick with his left hand and threw the other with his right. The three of them came together and with the national flag they sealed what was one of the most anticipated concerts of the festival.
Arcade Fire and The Blaze: the icing on the cake
Arcade Fire will be presented this Sunday at the Estéreo Picnic
Photo:Courtesy Arcade Fire
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Win pulled the flag high in the center of the stage, Regine came out completely pink: a transparent pink coat that matches her boots of the same color. ‘Age of Anxiety II (Rabbit Hole)’ was the preamble to the sounds that followed with all the power of indie rock.
Suddenly something happened that surprised everyone: Bomba Estéreo, a Colombian group, came on stage that brought to the Estéreo Picnic the sounds of the Colombian Caribbean and the fusion of rock and reggae.
Although the origin of the group is in Bogotá, Li Saumet, the vocalist, is from Santa Marta, Magdalena. The big surprise came to accompany and radiate more fire to the Arcade Fire presentation, when the band sang their famous song ‘Fuego’.
However, the touch that highlighted the amalgamation of sensations and rhythms of the festival was missing. It was The Blaze, the French electronic music duo. The CeraVe stage was the tombstone on which the living dead came to finish off the festival. Some people did their cambuche to sleep, while others moved their heads, shoulders and legs to Territory, one of their biggest hits. This is how the attendees enjoyed the last moments of the festival, who were satisfied with the development, place and experiences offered by one of the largest music events in the country: the Estéreo Picnic.
Fashion and music united: the soul of the FEP 2024
ALEJANDRO ZAPATA PEÑA
EL TIEMPO SCHOOL OF MULTIMEDIA JOURNALISM
CAMILA SANCHEZ FAJARDO
DIGITAL SCOPE EDITORIAL
TIME