Red Hot Chili Peppers in Guatemala

TIGOFEST it was called.


But so much more than that -  a lineup of contemporary music bands from Latin America, and headlining were the RHCP (which was what attracted us in the first place!). I didn't realise what a treat of music it was going to be.

A very plain ticket for a very exciting music festival

Once we had figured out the seating arrangement, we chose to have seats rather than stand in the moshpit. We joined a tour group leaving San Salvador at 0700 on Sat and returning Sun at 630pm. A hotel room, breakfast, all bus transfers to the show, and bus return on Sunday via Antigua in Guatemala for lunch were included. The full price was $195US per person.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Jody and Linda on the bus

Waiting in the queue at the border
(twice on the way there, twice on the way back)

                               



The usual delays along the way - 2 border crossings, roadworks and slow Salvadoreans, meant that we didn't arrive at our hotel until 1pm. Mind you we managed more than 40 winks on the bus - good prep for a long night ahead!

Arriving at our hotel, Guatemala City
3 Kiwi's, 1 Aussie and a Scott!

So after dropping things at the hotel - Hotel Biltmore Guatemala, a very comfortable hotel, we headed off to the Estadio Nacional Mateo Flores, an outdoor multipurpose stadium, which holds up to 30,000 people.

The road to Tigo Fest

Along the entry road there was lots of advertising, memoribilia, Tshirts, as well as drinks, including beer and shots. Little did we realise it was a dry concert, so we had to drink it all before we went in!

And we had time to mix with the locals as well!

                              


Once we were inside, the action had already started.

Flaminia - Guatemalan musician/singer. Indie-experimetal
Francis Davila - Guatemalan musician - electronic - DJ
Bohemia Suburbana - Guatemalan alternative rock/popular contemporary. 20 years of producing music, well know popular Guatemalan rock group

Mana - famous Mexican band with several grammies to their name, as well as no.1 sales in the States in 2002. Latin Pop Rock mixed with love ballads.















And....RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS - what a crazy performance!

                                           

After an hour and more of RHCP, it was getting on for 10pm, and many people left - not coping with the dry Sat night! Anyway we decided to stay and watch Paul van Dyk - so glad we did!
A German, and star of Electronic music. the light show was amazing and the music just kept getting better. (Glad I wasn't near the stage though!)

We crawled into bed at 1.30am - very pleased with ourselves staying up so late!