This is the story of my experiences living as an ex-pat in Mexico since 2003. It's to culminate in a published book. With your help, I'll be editing, selecting a title, and cover art: a participatory project. Your comments encouraged!
/donkarp/images/HarmonicaDon-ID-2c3a74a1-9a5e-4421-cdde-31ae88a0a807-ID-9632050c-d78d-453c-f831-d2460b662526.jpg)
Letters from Mexico
Letters
A Music Festival in Tepoztlan
November 30, 2019
The vendors insured we had both visual and culinary entertainments. The man on the bottom left is Pariksit Prassad, a Mexican who is a Hare Krishna disciple. His authentic Indian cuisine is very tasty, my favorite is the wrapped spinach. I love exploring the various toppings: humus, salsas, and chutneys. Yum! And we often have grand philosophical discussions while I eat.
The EKKO Hostel provided a beautiful location to house the fest. The mountains frame it's extensive mowed lawns, with hammocks to relax behind the active festival area.
In the video below, you'll see clips of most of the bands at the festival. There were vocalists singing Mexican folklórico, jazz, and blues. One band of four indigenous locals played original funk, and there were various jazz groups.
This was an all day outdoor music festival in Tepoztlan, Morelos, Mexico, on Sunday, November 3, 2019. It was a fund-raiser to start a local non-profit musician's union. In the last blog, I spoke about the local musician, Jim Doney, and this one covers many musicians working together in a beautiful venue.
Tepoztlan, Mexico. The festival was held at EKKO Hostel. Photo by Don Karp
Tepoztlan, Mexico. Many vendors supplied food, drink, and displayed crafts for sale. Photo by Don Karp
Tepoztlan, Mexico. Grounds behind the active festival area. Photo by Don Karp
Tepoztlan, Mexico. Festival promotion
Tepoztlan, Mexico. Restaurant and kitchen (top) provided meals. Next to it was a lounge area for chilling out (bottom) with these happy campers relaxing.
Photos by Don Karp
The purpose of this fun-filled all day festival was to raise funds for the legal work needed to set up a non-profit. Tepoztlan is growing exponentially with tourism, and correspondingly with residential professional musicians. The tourists want entertainment, and the clubs are happy to provide it. But they pay musicians very little. The musicians union would help the clubs find excellent musicians at a fair price. It would also promote musical events like this one, and act as an agency to help musicians find bands to play in.
Vendors
The Music
/donkarp/EKKO_sign_1-g49ca.jpg "EKKO sign (1)")
The Venue
/donkarp/Fest_grounds_C-l169b.jpg "Fest grounds C")
/donkarp/Vendor_overview_C-k3058.jpg "Vendor overview C")
/donkarp/vendors_C-bdc09.jpg "vendors C")
/donkarp/RestLounge_C-db13b.jpg "Rest:Lounge C")
/donkarp/Composite_Facepainting_smudge-v1dd3.jpg "Composite Facepainting smudge")
Tepoztlan, Mexico. Festivals in Mexico commonly have a smudge for purification (bottom right). And what's a festival without facepainting? Photos by Don Karp
Tepoztlan, Mexico. Video of clips of most of the festival bands. Video by Don Karp