el crispito

On our way, we saw several cars from Mexico City, but there were representatives from many other Mexican states as well. We even saw plates from Nuevo León, which is up north, bordering Texas.

The roads were sprayed with water at some points, but it was not enough to dampen the dust on the roads. At times there was hardly any visibility, and it was bumper to bumper traffic. Once we reached the festival, Charles had to drop us off some 200 meters from the entrance gate. That was after he had passed a couple of other points beyond which vehicles were not being permitted, by telling the guards that he had Americans he had to escort or that he had a passenger who had trouble walking. I am usually not one to go for that kind of thing, but since the drop-off point for everyone else was a kilometer from the gate, and it allowed us to stay in the car and out of the dust for a little longer, I wasn't going to complain.

We soon discovered that one could not just walk straight up to the gate to get in. There was a 400 meter long line snaking around to get into the gate. It moved fairly quickly, but we were stuck the whole time in a windy dust storm, and no way to keep from breathing in heaping lungfuls of powdered dirt. That was just great for Shawn, who had just recovered from a sinus infection, and I was equally thrilled, having come down with chest congestion and a sore throat the night before.

We finally made it in the gates, and were able to get up to where we could see the stage. Björk started 30 minutes earlier than scheduled, but thanks to Charles, we arrived in time to see the start of her set. She was about as tall as a dime from where we were, but the performance was spectacular. Her set list is available online, but it isn't entirely accurate. I wish she had done "Oceanea" in her encore, as it is one of my favorites. She only did "Declare Independence," which was still pretty fantastic. The set lasted an hour and twenty minutes, and featured a brass ensemble.

After she finished, we decided to take off. Our sinuses were packed with dust and we had Charles waiting for us. We had arranged to give Charles a call on our cell phone to let him know we were leaving, but we were not able to get any service at all for our Telcel phone. I am really surprised that they didn't have the foresight to put a temporary mobile cell out at the festival site to have coverage there, but we didn't get any signal until we were headed out on the road again.

We talked about whether or not it was worth it, as it cost us about USD $230 for the tickets and unexpectedly nearly that much again for the transportation. We decided that it was worth it to have seen Björk perform live. I cannot stress enough how incredible she was. Yet if there is a Sonofilia Festival next year, we're not going back.

In fact, if there is ever a concert that we want to see, held at that location ("El Aguacate") again, we are not going. In the day following, it has become pretty clear that we have both developed sinus infections from breathing in all that dust, and my lungs hurt more than if I'd sat down and chain-smoked two packs of Lucky Strike straights. It's ironic since Björk supposedly wanted to perform in a place that was more 'natural' than a concert hall, but maybe it is just a reminder that nature can kick your ass.

The bottom line: Björk gets top marks for a wonderful show, and the way she can make such a big sound come out of such a little body. The organizers of the Sonofilia Festival did a really crappy job at picking their location and making sure that people had reliable transportation to get there. Furthermore, they really should have taken some proactive measures to control the dust issue.

We didn't take any photos, but you can check out this other person's photostream on Flickr if you want. They were closer than we were able to get anyway.

Other reaction en español @ cierra la puerta al salir, Defiéndete, L.C. Boxset, Robotania8a, Bitácora de una drama queen, pastelazo