BajaNomad

Ole! Music fests return to Tijuana this weekend - Friday's Norte Sonoro and Saturday's All My Friends festivals...

Gypsy Jan - 11-16-2012 at 02:11 PM

From The San Diego Union Tribune

By George Varga

The concluding concert of the second annual Norte Sonoro Festival

When: 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16

Where: Leyvas Paradise, Avenida Revolucion 1026, Zona Centro, Tijuana

Admission: Free, but you must register in advance online to attend

Online: bit.ly/nortesonoro

The third annual All My Friends Music Festival

When: 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17

Where: Casa de la Cultura, Avenida París y Lisboa 5, Altamira, Tijuana

Tickets: 100 pesos (about $8.50) at the door

Phone: (011)-52-664-114-57-07

Online: amfmf.com

Transportation: Shuttle buses will leave every two hours, starting at 2 p.m. Saturday, from San Ysidro to the festival. The last bus returns to the border at 11 p.m., in order to connect with the San Diego Trolley. A combined shuttle and festival ticket is $8 through Turista Libre ( turista-libre.blogspot.com/)

A shared passion for music - specifically, indie-rock, hardcore punk and various electronica offshoots - is the creative glue brought Tijuana's Argenis Garcia, Marty Preciado and Pablo Dodero together.

Now, with the third edition of their annual All My Friends Music Festival, the three event producers hope their passion will help fuel greater appreciation for the cultural ties that bind their hometown with San Diego and points beyond.

The Saturday music marathon comes one day after the concluding concert of Tijuana's second annual Norte Sonoro Festival.

Friday's free Norte Sonoro concert at Leyva's Paradise will feature performances by Brazil's Psilosamples, Venezuela's Cardopusher, Canada's Porier and two American artists, Sun Araw and Venus X. Playing a key role in Norte Sonoro is Tijuana's Los Macuanos, which some electronic music fans regard as a possible heir apparent to Baja's internationally acclaimed Nortec Collective.

New York's DJ Rupture is acting as the artistic curator for the borders-leaping Norte Sonoro festival. If all goes according to plan, it will merge with the All My Friends Music Festival to create a mega-festival in Tijuana.

Perhaps coincidentally, Norte Sonoro mainstays Los Macuanos are also scheduled to perform as one of the nearly three dozen acts at Saturday's 13-hour, all-ages All My Friends Music Festival.

The lineup includes San Diego's Tropical Popsicle, Long Beach's Crystal Antlers, Mexicali's Maniquí Lazer and Tijuana's Los Macuanos, which some fans have regarded as a possible heir apparent to Baja's internationally acclaimed Nortec Collective.

To held at Tijuana's hillside Casa de la Cultura, All My Friends will feature performances on one indoor and two outdoor stages. Visual art and food and crafts vendors will enhance the sonic offerings.

"Every generation is requesting more and asking more from its community. Through music, we hope to erase some of the negative stereotypes about Tijuana," said Preciado, 25.

Garcia, 28, agreed, adding: "We want to help create those moments where people get together and have a collective experience, where they take the music and own it."

Festival co-promoter Dodero, 31, went to school in Tijuana and Chula Vista, where he now lives. As teenagers, he, Preciado and Garcia attended concerts on both sides of the border. That experience helped shaped their multicultural perspectives.

"Some of the shows we went to at (UC San Diego's) Che Cafe and at SOMA inspired us to bring that modus operandi to Tijuana," said Dodero, who works at The Music Studio in San Ysidro and plays in the band Late Nite Howl