Home > Austin Music Source > Archives > 2011 > May > 23 > Entry
Pachanga draws 4,000 on a steamy Saturday
(David Weaver FOR AMERICAN-STATESMAN)
- Photos: Pachanga Latino Music Festival
“We look at our music as a kind of Chicano awakening,” the lead singer of Los Angeles band Chicano/Son said during the band’s set on a humid Saturday afternoon at Fiesta Gardens, the site of the Pachanga Latino Music Festival, now in its fourth year. The group, which uses traditional folk instruments to create a sound that blends old and new, offered just one of many versions of Latino music across four stages at the fest, which also included rock, rap, DJ sets and Ninos Rock Pachanga, a set of programming designed specially for children.
Later, San Antonio-based Mariachi Las Altenas performed on the venue’s large pavilion stage. The 10-member, all-female Mariachi orchestra wowed a large crowd with violins, horns and guitars while decked out in ornately decorated, bright orange skirts and jackets. Meanwhile, on the other side of the festival grounds, Houston rapper Chingo Bling, aka the Tamale Kingpin, kicked things off with a short set of dance rock by singer Roxxi Jane and then took the stage donning a cowboy hat and singing over Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’” and Eazy-E’s “Boyz-N-The-Hood,” before launching into a set of his own material.
“With Mariachi Las Altenas going on one stage and Chingo Bling on the other, that explains in a nutshell the diversity of the festival,” Pachanga promoter Rich Garza said. Aside from a minor travel problem with festival headliners Ozomatli, which delayed their afternoon children’s performance, Ozokids, Garza said everything ran smoothly.
With an enthusiastic, diverse crowd of 4,000 in attendance, this year’s Pachanga felt like an event well on the way to staking a claim among the likes of Fun Fun Fun Fest, Chaos in Tejas and Austin Psych Fest as another of Austin’s top alternatives to the Austin City Limits Music Festival and South by Southwest. “This year feels like we’re taking another step forward,” Garza said.
Some of the acts, such as SXSW veteran Chico Mann, would have been at home at those other festivals as well. Mann, who also has played guitar as a member of Brooklyn-based Antibalas, sang over an energized set of electronic music as the crowd turned into a dance party.
Austin musicians, including singer songwriter Gina Chavez, funk outfit La Guerilla and Este Vato, who delivered a punchy, horn-driven set of music drawing from both rock and hip-hop, also performed. Echocentrics, an Austin-based rock/soul group led by guitarist Adrian Quesada of Grupo Fantasma, took the stage before Ozomatli, who played in a single headlining slot, a first for the festival.
Follow Austin Music Source on Facebook and Twitter.
Permalink | | Categories: Pachanga Fest
