Despite cuts in federal funding and the state culture budget for 2017, the Jalisco government has pledged almost $US1.5 million for the rights to hold an international rock festival in the city in October next year.
Guadalajara will host Mexico’s first edition of the Lollapalooza Music Festival in October 2017. The festival has been held in Chicago. Illinois each year since 2005 and features rock, alternative rock, heavy metal, punk rock, hip hop and electronic dance music, as well as dance and comedy performances and craft booths.
The Lollapalooza Festival branched out to Santiago, Chile in 2011, and since then editions have been held in cities in Europe and Asia.
Jalisco Governor Aristoteles Sandoval was unrepentant this week after being fiercely criticized for allocating 30 million pesos toward securing the rights for a festival brand that is already well known worldwide.
He suggested the event will attract as many as 140,000 fans, many from other parts of Mexico and abroad, and consolidate Jalisco’s image as “a capital of innovation.”
Rene Arce, president of the decentralized State Commission for Culture and the Arts (CECA), said festivals such as Lollapalooza “sell themselves” due to the big-name artists on the bills and do not need government subsidies.
Lawmaker Kehila Ku, president of the Culture Commission in the Jalisco Congress, said the “private” event should be “self financing.” She suggested that the money could be better spent on “developing” cultural offerings outside the Guadalajara metropolitan area.
Sandoval stressed that studies had been done to ascertain the economic impact of the festival and its benefits.
Attendance at the Chicago festival usually hovers around the 150,000 mark over a two- to three-day period.
Previous artists appearing the festival have included some of the biggest names in U.S. and U.K. rock music, such as Kanye West, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Alice in Chains, Lady Gaga, The Strokes, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Muse, Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay.