Since its inception in 2010, Bogotá, Colombia’s Festival Estéreo Picnic has become one of the biggest and most important festivals in South America, thanks to its mixture of internationally renowned talent and homegrown acts. Their 2016 edition is no exception.
For this year’s event, the fest has united a boatload of talent, including marquee headliners like Mumford & Sons, Florence + The Machine, Die Antwoord, Tame Impala, Snoop Dogg, and many others. There’s also Remezcla favorites like La MiniTK del Miedo, Little Jesus, Nicola Cruz, and Kanaku y el Tigre. But we’re interested in finding the best and brightest Colombia has to showcase, so we rounded up five acts you can’t miss at this year’s festivities.
Estéreo Picnic will take place on March 10-12 at Parque Deportivo 222 in Bogotá.
1
Ismael Ayende
This Bogotá ensemble describes their music as Andean psych-surf rock. They reference folk music from the Andes with melodies and instrumentation inspired from that style, crafting a modern and joyful sound. They add a ton of other things in the mix to keep everything exciting.
2
Electric Mistakes
It’s easy to draw a line linking this duo from Bogotá to The White Stripes. Both have a similar lineup and play riff-heavy, blues-based garage rock, but the Mistakes have an ace up their sleeve: they take inspiration from the music that they grew up with, like Chavela Vargas and Mexican ranchero. The combination makes their melodies stand out.
3
Unknown Yet
The DJ duo of Laura Solarte Mejía and Paola Cañón will surely provide some of the best, most danceable moments at Estéreo Picnic. Unknown Yet have made a living playing club nights both in their native Colombia and across the globe, thanks to their impeccably crafted minimal house.
4
The Kitsch
So many bands nowadays take their cues from garage revivalists The Black Lips, but how many of them can say they had the chance to open for them and live to tell their story? The Kitsch has shared the stage with the Lips and many other genre greats, like Los Explosivos and Los Peyotes. Playing young, loud, and snotty guitar music, they should have festivalgoers moshing happily while beer sprays freely overhead.
5
Sultana
Take salsa caleña, rhythms from Colombia’s Pacific coast, electronic instruments, and urban melodies and mix them together to get Sultana’s eclectic musical adventures. Sultana is the work of Jacobo Álvarez, featuring the talent of many other musicians, especially salsa choke MC La Ru-K, whose presence is one of the best things about the collective. Their show should make audiences’ jaws fall to the ground and dance till the sun rises.