Mexican singer Alejandro Fernandez crowned this Thursday the lineup of the Arre Festival, the first of its kind that brings together the different types of regional Mexican music and that this year will be held on September 5 and 6 in Mexico City.
Since its foundation in 2023, Arre’s three stages have been “home” to classic groups such as Los Tigres del Norte and Peso Pluma, Natanael Cano or Junior H, the young exponents of the corrido tumbado.
“This event took the representatives of the genre out of the palenques, the fairs and the streets to bring them to the mega-festival environment, where you perform in front of 70,000 people in first-world conditions,” Ocesa promoter Noel Seoane told EFE.
The line-up for this fourth edition includes groups such as Banda MS, Los Tucanes de Tijuana, Víctor Mendivil, La Sonora Dinamita, Grupo Cañaveral and El Mimoso.
However, there are also very young singers such as Marco Villalobos (Chihuahua, 2006) or Yng Nas (Sonora, 2005), who took advantage of the “virality” of the genre during the pandemic and its exponents to start their own career in the music industry.
Alejandro Fernandez will be the main artist in the Arre Festival
That virality, according to Seoane, was exponential in 2023, when albums were released that shook the regional Mexican music scene, such as: ‘Génesis’, by Peso Pluma; ‘$AD BOYZ 4 LIFE II, by Junior H, or ‘Nata Montana’, by Natanael Cano.
“We took advantage of that ‘boom’ and it was a bet that turned out quite well. Today we consider ourselves part of the engine so that the scene does not stagnate and is constantly evolving,” he stressed.
The success of regional Mexican music brought with it much controversy because its artists, known for being “the chroniclers of the people”, directly portray the violence arising from drug trafficking, insecurity and impunity in the country, a trait that the Mexican government, especially the president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has described as “apology for violence”.
Seoane acknowledged that the tone of the artists has been changing in recent years, although he does not know if it is because of government pressure or because they want to “set an example” for children, since “many minors” listen to the genre.
“I don’t know if it’s a response to the conditions of the government or to the prohibition that came to be at some point, I think it has more to do with the organic evolution of the genre,” he said.
On this issue that appeals to freedom of expression, he admitted that the Arre Festival does not have a position as such, but clarified that its celebration is subject to the regulations and guidelines of local governments, in this case, that of Mexico City.
“If something changes between now and September we will stick to that and talk to the artists,” he concluded, reported Agencia EFE.
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