Yvette Walker
With KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker. This is IE Latino Voices, where we invite representatives from Latino led and Latino serving organizations to share their stories and their impact in our region. Joining me today is Eduardo Valencia, founder of Mucho Gusto Music and Arts Festival in Riverside. Thank you so much for being with us today, Eduardo.
Eduardo Valencia
Thank you for having me.
Yvette Walker
Please talk about the background of Mucho Gusto Music and Arts Festival, and what inspired you to create the annual event.
Eduardo Valencia
Mucho Gusto Arts Festival is a collaboration project between myself, artist Deladeso, Ulises Rodriguez at the Arts Connection in San Bernardino and Cosme Cordova at the Division 9 Gallery in Downtown Riverside. With our powers combined, basically, we produced a music festival that has the name Mucho Gusto. Originally, Mucho Gusto was a party that I began throwing in Downtown Riverside before the pandemic, where I would DJ tropical, Afro-Latin music and the pandemic put it to sleep. And then, long story short, I was like, Mucho Gusto sounds like a cool festival. So I spoke with Cosme Cordova, who also produces a Dia de Muertos in Downtown Riverside. And here we are with Mucho Gusto. We did the first one, the inaugural on September 2023, and now we're here for year two, September 21 of 2024. And really the reason, aside from bringing beautiful cultural experiences to our city, is to create spaces where families can come enjoy good music of artists that are up and coming, as well as enjoy sculptures from local artists, and it's like in a safe environment that's creative, also pushing the boundaries, but also eclectic, something that you would expect to find, like in LA, but it's in Riverside.
Yvette Walker
Please paint a picture of the vibe of music and entertainment the community can expect at your event.
Eduardo Valencia
Sure. So Mucho Gusto will have tropical Afro-Latin music. What that means is cumbia, salsa, reggaeton, corridos, basically dance music. On top of that, we have artists that are going to build sculptures based around the idea of piñata parties. So if you grew up in SoCal, whether you are Mexican or not, you've probably broken a piñata. So we decided that we wanted to take a surrealist perspective on piñatas, and what that means is that we invited artists to build a piñata based onsomething that inspires them. So that could mean a lot of things. But from my perspective, it was like, we grew up in these communities that are like, oftentimes have patriarchy and machismo in them that are a part of it. And much like a piñata, when you break it, you're rewarded with candy. It was like, let's build these piñatas that are like, taking the spirit these communities come from, and let's try to, like, break apart certain things that are negative in our community and what that looks like to you. We don't know what it'll look like this year, but we're working with a bunch of artists from San Bernardino and Riverside. They're gonna just build some piñata sculptures. And the music this year features Frente Cumbiero from Colombia, features La Doña from San Francisco, Chirimoya from Mexico City, DJ LUCHA, who's a singer from Y La Bamba, who's gonna drop a DJ set, and then there's a special presentation of Buyepongo versus QUITAPENAS, which are more local bands. So it's a festive party, dance music, both live and DJs, coupled with these piñata sculptures that are going to be decorating the field, of course, food and drink all of that. So it's a little mini festival, but it feels larger than life.
Yvette Walker
Please share a bit about the art that is featured at the festival.
Eduardo Valencia
So we have a couple artists, right? So the artists are gonna build piñata sculptures. So last year we had like a giant bat vampire piñata sculpture, and there was like a big, like Maruchan Ramen sculpture, and there was an eyeball sculpture, but it was all piñata inspired, different characters. So it'll be a lot more of that this year. At the entrance, you'll expect to find the large Mucho Gusto piñata as you arrive, there'll be balloons also by Balloonski balloon sculptures, colorful, playful, family energy, and it's the first thing you see when you arrive to Mucho Gusto. So right when you walk in through the gates, you're greeted with giant Mucho Gusto piñatas and a piñata garden. And then from there you choose if you want to go shop some art, get some food, get some drink, do some workshops, or just go enjoy the music.
Yvette Walker
Is there a cost to enjoy the Mucho Gusto Music and Arts Festival?
Eduardo Valencia
Currently the cost is $40 but we kept the price at $20 for the first, like three months, just encouraging people trying to make it affordable, because we feel like it's a difficult time for people. But we are taking on this project with very limited sponsorship and no corporate sponsorship, so we're asking the community, like, ‘Yo, shell out a little bit and enjoy it with us. Let's build it together.’
Yvette Walker
Please talk about the best way to support the Mucho Gusto Music and Arts Festival in the future.
Eduardo Valencia
Well, you can visit muchogustofest.com you can add us on all the socials, which is Mucho Gusto Fest, and when we publish stuff, share it with friends. If you went last year, bring a friend. If you're a sponsor out there, you want to be involved, just reach out to us. I mean, we're very independent. We respond to all the DMs. We're not really backed by anything corporate at the moment, you know. And I'm like, I like
that, but we want to work with as much community as we can. So even if you're not Latino, tap in, like, we want to work with you as long as we're like progressively trying to improve our community with music and art, which I think is a solution to a lot of our problems, we're in line already.
Yvette Walker
Thank you so much for being with us today, Eduardo.
Eduardo Valencia
Cool, thank you for having me. Join us again next week for IE Latino Voices. You can find this story and others on our website at kvcrnews.org/IELatinoVoices. IE Latino voices is produced by KVCR Public Media and is funded by generous support from the CIELO Fund IECF, uplifting and investing in the IE’s Latino community. For KVCR News, I'm Yvette Walker.
