If you were to look at my bucket list, attending the Viña del Mar festival in Chile would be right near the top. Every third week of Feburary, the Latin music world descends on Viña del Mar, Chile for one of the most important festivals of the year. It is the oldest music festival in Latin America and one of the most impactful.
So how did it start and how does it work? Let’s walkthrough it all together.
History
The first Viña del Mar Festival took place in 1960. The first European artist to perform at the Festival was Spain’s Duo Dinamico (the subject of our very first Throwback Thursday post) in 1966. The majority of the early performers at the festival were Chilean groups. As the festival grew and evolved, more international artists began to make their way out to Chile to perform. The first wave of international artists hailed from Spain and Latin America. The second wave of international acts hailed from the English-speaking world as international acts such as Eddie Money, Air Supply, Cheap Trick, and Donna Summer performed in the late-80s/early 90s. This trend continued making Viña del Mar a major international festival for all artists.
The festival has evolved with the state of Latin music. Reggaeton, while originally an underground genre, has seen many of it’s artists appear on stage at Viña. Daddy Yankee, J Balvin, Wisin & Yandel, Becky G, and Bad Bunny all performing at the festival. Also a sign of evolution, the festival will often invite comedians to perform.
Since the first festival in 1960, the festival has taken place at the Quinta Vergara amphitheater which can hold roughly 15,000 people.
Unfortunately, we recently experienced a first with the Festival. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the festival was canceled for the first time in 2021.
Structure
Each day of the festival includes two main performers. They also tend to include comedic acts and song contests. The festival generally lasts 5 days.
The audience, known as El Monstro (the Monster), is notoriously brutal. They have no issue showing their displeasure with things occurring on the stage. There are have been a number of artists to feel the wrath of the crowd. Some have been so taunted that they were forced to leave the stage after just a few minutes of performing. The most famous artist to feel the full wrath of El Monstro was Enrique Iglesias in 2002. Iglesias received the Gaviota del Plata and proceeded to toss it into the crowd. Enrique said this was a sign of respect and gratitude to the crowd. The crowd, however, did not interpret the action that way. Watch the clip below to see their reaction.
Awards are presented at the festival for performances and by the crowd’s demand. The awards are named Gaviotas (seagulls in English). The awards come in three levels – silver, gold, and platinum. The platinum award has only ever been awarded twice, including once to Luis Miguel. The Gold award is generally the highest award which can be received.
The festival also contains a song contest. Every year, one song is selected as the overall winner of the Festival. Call it home-field advantage but Chile is the leading country with wins in 23 Festivals (not including 9 wins when it was solely a domestic competition). Italy (10), Spain (6), and Argentina (5) are the only other countries to win more than twice.
Notable Performances
Many of the biggest names in Latin music history have performed at the festival over the years.
Luis Miguel famously performed at the festival for the first time when he was just 15 years old in 1985. This performance was included in the Netflix series about Luis Miguel’s life. (Read our review here).
Daddy Yankee was the first urban artist to perform at the Festival in 2006.
Miguel Bose has the most performances at the Festival with 9 total appearances (1981, 1982, 1984, 1994, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2008, 2013, 2018).
For more information on the festival, click here.