From November 14th to 18th Cuba will host for the first time the Latin American Rock Festival “Patria Grande”, according to the information release by the organizing committee in a press conference at “The Yellow Submarine”, a Cultural Center run by ARTex. Bands like No te va a gustar (Uruguay), with a  great prestige and calling power, as well as Puya (Puerto Rico), Ra la Culebra (Colombia), Milixia (Costa Rica) and Curva Sur (Venezuela), will be showing their talent in Havana, Cienfuegos and Villa Clara.

Humberto Cruz Hernández, president of  ARTex and the organizing committee in this event sponsored by the Ministry of Culture declared to the press that several Cuban institutions will be included in this festival: ARTex, EGREM, Cuban Rock Agency and Casa del Alba Cultural. On the other hand, Sebastián Heredia, and Argentinean promoter who is also a member of the festival´s presidency said that within the festival´s main purposes has being conceived the possibility for young Cubans to know more about what has been done in the rest of Latin America in terms of rock. It will be also a great opportunity for the invited musicians to know and interact with local bands, which have a mark in the field of Latin rock.

Another information is that the festival will count with the presence of Horacio González, Director of the National Library of Argentina, who will be in charge at La Casa del Alba, the presentation of an audiovisual to pay a tribute to Luis Alberto Spinetta,a pioneer in Latin rock. This audiovisual shows some aspects the life and work of this Argentinean composer. With this simple the audience will have the opportunity to get deep into documents, poems, testimonials to get familiar with the works of the author of “Muchacha ojos de papel”.

Regarding the schedule, Sebastián informed that the opening concert wil be carried out on November 14th at the Antimperialist Tribune. On November 15th the Salón Rosado de la Tropical will be opened with the band No te va a gustar. That same day at Casa de la Música de Miramar will perform the band Puya, while Ra la Culebra, Curva Sur and La Milixia will perform at the Tomás Terry theater in Cienfuegos. The Capiro hill in Villa Clara, will be the place where bands like No te va a gustar, Ra la Culebra, La Milixia and Curva Sur will offer their concerts. The Cuban bands to participate on dai 17th are still subject to change and the event´s closing will be carried out on November 18th at Maxim Rock.

The “Patria Grande” Festival will achieve a great convergence among rock bands and their followers through all these concerts where Heavy Metal, rhythm fusion, alternative rock, and the most important thing the bands will sing in Spanish. There will be a space for music during five intense days in order to defend a genre cultivated in a sui generis way in our Latin America, where it is not just a musical but an aesthetical concept which reflects a different way of seeing life.

(Taken from Cubadebate)

Translated by: Osmany Ortiz González (Azurina)