A Fifth of Festival Cubano
Riis Park, Chicago, IL 15-17 August 2014
by Bill Tilford, all rights reserved

What do these two have in common?  If your first guess was "Some men can't tell them apart after 8 drinks", that's not a bad guess, but we were looking for something more along the lines of "You could have found  both at this year's Festival Cubano".  The one on the left was a delightful children's ride which I briefly considered trying to rent in order to have better sight lines for taking concert photos. The one on the right, while also delightful, was most decidedly not a children's ride and would probably not have responded very well to any suggestions of being mounted by an adult either. 

As I predicted in the weeks before the Festival, it was a great time, well worth attending, and some people are complaining about it in cyberspace anyway. (I nailed both parts.)   The Juan Formell tribute in particular was an important act by the festival,  which is to be saluted for doing this.  Now that the once-popular refrain of "Why isn't this privately-funded event free to the public?" appears to have been asked and answered (and is now gone), some of this year's  comments actually deserve a moment of discussion here, so I'm posting three photo galleries with discussion of the music and bands, and we'll take a look at some of the debate topics on this page.  Since I am not of Cuban origin (but have become somewhat Cubanized by various things), I am going to offer my perspective about a couple of things as a friend of the community without a direct personal stake in the outcome.   

I.  The Food Thing.   This is an annual discussion topic in cyberspace after the festival.  Those who are critical state that there are too few Cuban food vendors and too many vendors serving other kinds of food, the festival's organizers state that all Cuban restaurants are invited but most choose not to participate for various reasons.   
My opinion:  The fact that there are other kinds of food should not, in itself, be a problem.  Almost every other festival (even the Korean Festival) has some of this, and if anything, one should give Festival Cubano a little credit for not taking the easy way to make more money and inviting Burger Czar, Tasmanian Devil Dog  or some other large chains to set up a booth for a handsome sum.   Nevertheless, it is true that only a small percentage of Cuban restaurants in the metro area participate for whatever reason, and that is unfortunate.  However, there might be a very good reason beyond anyone's remedy: many of these are small family operations that would probably have trouble keeping the restaurant open AND doing a three-day festival at the same time, and closing the restaurant would almost certainly be a losing proposition for them financially.  This is probably something we will all just have to live with,  but something like a ropa vieja cooking competition  (or a different Cuban specialty of choice) would be one possible way to increase the element of celebration of the cuisine.   Incidentally, a small handful of Chicago's finest rib joints had similar beginnings - in a Ribfest in a park.  

An argument about who makes the best version of this would be well worth watching, especially if they have to prove it...

II.  The Music Thing.  The festival's critics state that there is too much "non-Cuban" music in the lineup, and that this dilutes the cultural value of the festival.  The festival's organizers state that a certain amount of "non-Cuban" music is necessary to attract people from other cultures to the park, which makes a festival of this size possible and  helps introduce them to Cuban music and culture. 
My opinion:  Personally, I see a few pieces to this question:

A.  The live band side of the equation, if this is going to be held in a festival the size of Riis Park, must include groups that will draw a larger audience than the Cuban-American community could ever provide by itself even with 100% participation.  For Chicago's population, this inevitably means having some bands that appeal to the Puerto Rican community especially.  As this edition of the festival proved, if this portion of the audience were to evaporate, the crowd would shrink to a fraction of itself. The question is "how does one best maintain artistic balance"?  This requires balancing not just ethnic backgrounds but also genres - Cuba has produced a wide range of genres from traditional to modern, and no one style represents everyone.  It is neither all Timba nor Buena Vista Social Club.  
Having said all that, Chicago has been missing out on many of the best touring bands from Cuba because there is a shortage of venues and festival opportunities  which have both the interest and the ability (BOTH parts are equally needed) to host them properly here. We do have our champions, but they are too few in number to bring much of what is available.  Now that the Festival has become a proven success, I appeal to it to step up to the plate and help address this problem by hiring at least a couple of bands from Cuba going forward - ideally something traditional plus something that represents today's Cuba - something like Elito Reve, Manolito Simonet y su Trabuco, Interactivo, Qva Libre etc. are but a few examples.  Those last two could reach an audience far beyond Timba fans if given sufficient time to introduce them to Chicago listeners.   Let there be Boricuas, yes, but the fact that the Juan Formell tribute went without problems is further proof that now is the time for us to see what people on both coasts are already enjoying, and this music needs all of the capable help that it can get.  
B.  The DJ side of the equation is a little different.  The purpose of canned music in a festival, as opposed to in a club,  is to effectively fill time between live acts (a fact which I think may sometimes be lost on some DJs).  I publicly admonish every DJ who is even considering this Festival to remember that this is a Cuban cultural festival, and you should take the time and trouble to craft your mix accordingly. The good news is that you can still play most genres IF you do your homework - just for one example, there are major Cuban bands such as Los Latinos that recorded some merengues (you can probably keep the bachatas at home - the Cuban version is radically different than yours).  Using Cuban (or at least identifiably Cuban-American)  bands for the genres you want to play may take a little extra time, effort and research, but again, remember where you are and why you are there. Being able to truthfully state that the merengue you just played was recorded in Havana is not only like having a get out of jail free card, it will also educate some people who knew less than they think they did about what Cubans truly listen and dance to for fun. 
(For the record, one of the DJs was Cuban and did play a nice mix of Cuban music including Timba, and at least one of the others also included some Cuban music in their mix.)

C.  A few years ago, it seems like everyone, whether DJ or band, wanted to do Guantanamera, a great song a couple of times a day maybe.  The good news is that we seem to be graduating from this. The bad news is that now everyone seems to have discovered Cuba que lindo son tus paisajes at the same time.  Another great song, but can the bands at least draw lots or something? The theme here is coordinating repertoire, not picking on a song per se.  The DJs should really do that too.  

D.  A word about the audio.  Actually, three words.  Too Much Bass in many of the sets.  I know that this is popular with the under-30 set, but for us over-40s, bass is meant to be felt in the feet, not in the teeth.   This tended to be more of an issue with the DJs than the live bands but occasionally spilled into a live band set.  I won't call anyone out on this now, but come the 6th Annual, be aware, and beware. 

III,  The Name Thing.   Some people have argued that if there is going to be an ethnic mix of music, there should be a more generic name for the festival rather than Festival Cubano. 
My opinion:  Because of the small size of the Cuban community here compared to other Latin American countries, whenever Cuban music has had to compete directly with them for attention, it has always been relatively neglected even though without Cuban music there would be no Salsa at all.  It is better to keep the name Festival Cubano because it at least sets a goal of maximizing that music.  Lose the title, lose the goal, and maybe eventually the music with it.  

IV.  Accessibility.   This one's not easy.  The VIP section has chairs, but in cyberspace, I saw an item from a person with mobility issues mentioning that if you aren't holding a VIP ticket, you have to bring your own, and that isn't always easy.  
My opinion:  Some festivals used to swap loaner chairs for some sort of deposit by the borrower, returnable when the chair was returned.  I don't have a good answer for this one, and with city and park district regulations being in the state they are in, I don't even know if there is one, but it might be worth studying the question. 

All in all, this was a great event, and I'm looking forward to the sixth editiion.    For daily photo galleries and some thoughts about the bands:

Day I
Day II
Day III