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Todd P’s MtyMx festival kicks off in Monterrey, Mexico today
The morning after the South by Southwest Music Festival concluded last year, famed New York-based concert promoter Todd Patrick — who had just thrown his fourth series of free outdoor shows at East Side venue Ms. Bea’s — packed up his bags and ventured with some friends down to Monterrey, Mexico. There, they ate tacos, relaxed and savored the city’s low-key charm. That day, Patrick, concerned that his increasingly high-profile SXSW shindig may come under fire from fest organizers, had the idea to pack up his party and move it south of the border.
That idea — and several long months of working logistics in his New York apartment — culminates today, as Patrick’s MtyMx kicks off in Monterrey. More than 50 bands — including both SXSW bands making the trip south and Mexican bands — will play across two stages from today to Monday, March 22 at an abandoned drive-in carved into a hillside. The site boasts camping and a visual arts display.
Despite the overlap of dates and artists — SXSW artists including Health, DD/MM/YYYY, Liars, Neon Indian, Andrew WK and many others are playing the festival — Patrick insists his festival isn’t intended to be adversarial to SXSW.
“Ideally they wouldn’t overlap at all — but there are people who live there who wouldn’t be happy with it starting on Sunday and running until midweek, and you have to respect that. It’s never been about trying to steal South by Southwest’s thunder,” said Patrick a few days out from MtyMx. “I don’t care about that. It’s about taking advantage of a situation, about taking advantage of what’s in front of you.”
“What’s in front” of Patrick is a wealth of touring bands congregated hours from Austin who face the difficult prospect of booking post-SXSW dates in nearby cities against a horde of competitors. MtyMx offers bands leaving Austin the chance to play better-attended shows against less competition than they might face in other cities in Texas, Oklahoma or New Mexico. That’s how he pitched it to more than 400 bands, with over 200 expressing interest. Patrick said the festival was also an attempt to correct misconceptions about the safety of Mexico and to present the world with images of Mexico’s burgeoning indie rock scene. He said the festival is being thrown largely for Mexican indie fans, who often have to cross the border to see shows — a difficult prospect.
“We have this vision that Mexico has no government and is riddled with crime and has no public health system, and all of these things are either offensive caricature or just out of control sensationalism in the media,” said Patrick. “I’m hoping that a lot of photos get taken, videos get shot, and in doing that we paint the picture of a country that’s not the stereotype. You look at the photos and you’ll see a thousand hip, well-dressed, well-educated brown faces. And that will paint a different, more accurate picture of Mexico.”
One among Mexico’s indie rock community is promoter Pablo Martinez , who threw a similar festival that also poached SXSW talent, Festival NRML, Saturday March 13 in Monterrey. He started the festival to give Mexican indie rock fans the chance to see bands that are often out of reach.
“We grew up seeing MTV and all these American bands, and usually they don’t come play to Monterrey, we have to go see them in San Antonio or Houston or Austin,” said Martinez. “So one of the objectives of the festival was to open this root of touring bands south of the border.”
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