Ruidosa festival, a place for women in the music industry, arrives in New York

New York, August 9 (EFE).- The Ruidosa Festival, born in 2016 in Chile to give visibility to women in the music industry, arrives in New York for the first time tomorrow, where will conclude the Lincoln Center summer concert series.

Artists from Latin America, including the Brazilian Bebel Gilberto, the Mexican Mireya Ramos (founder of the mariachi Flor de Toloache), the Colombian Ali Stone, the New York band Salt Cathedral, the duo Buscabulla and the singer iLe from Puerto Rico and the Chilean Francisca Valenzuela, will perform at the beginning of the festival in New York.

In addition to music, this festival, founded by Valenzuela, consists of forums and celebrates female voices from different countries and musical genres.

“I wanted the festival to be a place for women on stage and with the ability to create a conversation about the challenges of the creative world with a gender perspective,” Valenzuela told EFE about the origin of Ruidosa.

The event comes to Lincoln Center through its artistic programming director, the Chilean Paloma Estevez, who has met him before: Ruidosa has performed in Chile, Mexico and Peru and held forums in Buenos Aires (Argentina), Los Angeles and Las Vegas (USA). ).

“I hope it’s a lot of people’s first time” in New York, said Valenzuela, who hopes the event can become an annual, rotating festival.

A study by the Ruidosa team on the participation of women in 60 festivals in Latin America in 2016 and 2017 revealed that 78% were men or the bands were made up of men.

“If we discount mixed bands, only 10.6% of performers at festivals in 2017 were exclusively female” and in 2016 the figure was 9%, according to their report.

Valenzuela believes that the low participation of women in these events corresponds to a combination of factors, including the fact that the promoters hire top artists, of the dominant gender in the market or own them feeling known.

“The issue is that the majority (of the promoters) probably have that kind of attitude and that the same selection of artists continues to grow, he said.

On the other hand, she believes that it is necessary to give visibility to projects that are more different or perhaps less traditional “in sound, appearance or way”, and that would allow many artists employ a female.

He pointed out that when they met with promoters and presented them with the results of the study, they were not aware of that fact “and with that a concern is created to start looking for the more diverse talent that” will fuel the business.

She also pointed out that since the birth of Ruidosa, the presence of women at festivals in Argentina, Chile and Mexico has increased, but the quota is still low.

He highlighted the adoption of the Quota Law in Argentina, after the Ruidosa study, which establishes 30% female participation in festivals, which he says has created a change in terms of labor participation in all genres of music.

“Music made by women is not just for women, it’s for everyone and it’s an undoubted talent. It’s important to have an inclusive space,” he said.

According to Lincoln Center, the public can enjoy the free, all-day event by participating in a conversation between Latin journalists and tastemakers who promote Latin music around the world, as well as the twelve artists who will perform in three settings.

The forum, titled “Latinx on the Front: Our Noise is Global,” will include representatives from Billboard, Rolling Stone, YouTube, Sirius XM and Amazon Music.

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