Since 2014, the Coala Festival in Brazil has provided a stage for the diversity of Brazilian music. Without relying on international artists and focusing on established names and emerging national talents, it has successfully carved out its space across the Atlantic. Between the 1st and 2nd of June, the organisation aims to replicate this success in Cascais, but by "uniting the vertices of the triangle Africa, Portugal, and Brazil," in the words of director Gabriel Andrade.
To help with this endeavour, the festival's creative director sought assistance from Kalaf Epalanga, co-founder of the Enchufada label, former member of Buraka Som Sistema, and writer. "He approached me because he followed what I wrote about music in the Lisbon-Luanda corridor, with some incursions into Brazil as well," says Kalaf. "I thought he was approaching me because of my work in music, but he was interested in my intellectual perspective on music, on this culture, and this language that we share."
"It is an iconic festival in Brazil," continues the musician. "They have a tradition of featuring established names in Brazilian popular music, among other goals, and I felt it was important to maintain that in Lisbon. In other words, not to distort the festival and to try to get as close as possible to what a Coala edition in Brazil is like." Gilberto Gil and Jorge Ben Jor were the first artists suggested by the organisers. "I immediately agreed that the festival should be designed around these names, bringing in artists who could have a dialogue with the headliners and who span various audiences and musical sensibilities, from more dance-oriented music to more introspective genres like fado."
On the first day, the 1st of June, besides the legendary Jorge Ben Jor, the main stage will feature the Brazilian group BaianaSystem, who transform reggae into Afro-Brazilian music through afoxé, samba, and pagode; and the Angolan kuduro artist Pongo ("an immediate name, due to my connection with kuduro and Angolan dance music," says Kalaf). EU.CLIDES and Rita Vian are the Portuguese ambassadors. On the 2nd of June, in addition to the tropicalia icon Gilberto Gil, the lineup includes the fado singer Carminho; the Cape Verdean singer Mayra Andrade; and the Brazilians Rubel and Céu.
Joining these ten names is a legion of Lusophone DJs and producers, spread across two stages. "DJs are the great curators of our time," says the former Buraka Som Sistema member. "They curate our lives, our emotions, our states of mind." Many will perform at Club Coala, which the programmer describes as "the place where experimentation and risk-taking were possible." "A two-day festival is not the same as a three-day festival, so a lot gets left out. But I think it’s important to put emerging names alongside established ones. On the main stage, there were no slots to include more artists."
Or rather, there were, but only during the downtime between concerts. It is during these transitional moments that many DJs will perform. "The changeovers are a bit complex and we don't want to rush anyone’s process. In fact, the Coala Festival is very much about being relaxed and having a good vibe. They want the experience to be lived not only on the musical level. The relationship with the space, the food zones, the bathrooms, all that is important to them. Offering the audience a good time, without stress. And since we also don't want to stress the musicians, we opted to add more music to the stage."
On Saturday, 1 June, the DJs scheduled for the main stage are A Mamanus, Ubunto, DIDI, Indi Mateta, and Patrick Tor4, while Club Coala will host Dengo Club, Pedro Bertho, Robles, ZENGXRL, Caroline Lethô, and Tyson. The next day, the Club Coala booth will be occupied by El Nando, King Kami, Vanyfox, Danykas DJ, Shaka Lion, and DJ Patife back-to-back with Riot (Bateu Matou and former Buraka Som Sistema), while the transitions between musicians will be handled by Phephz, Quant, Thiago Guiselini, Tata Ogan, and Berlok.
Kalaf acknowledges that the biggest indicator of success for this first Portuguese edition would be to fill the Hipódromo Manuel Possolo on both days. But not only that. "We want to start demystifying and decomplexing the relationship between the various accents in the Portuguese language, bringing all this conversation to the forefront. During the curation, this was a topic, and we debated this perspective," the programmer admits. "For me," he concludes, "success is seeing a new festival, prioritising music in Portuguese, establishing itself in Portugal."
Hipódromo Manuel Possolo (Cascais). 1-2 June (Saturday-Sunday). 55€-170€.
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