Carnival of Barranquilla: drunks, influencers and bad organization, some of the complaints of the participants

The presence of influencers on the night of the Guacherna del Barranquilla Carnival, held on Friday, February 10, 2023, became a Llorente Vase. Through social networks, some Internet users have expressed their discomfort with the role they occupied during the first major Carnival event.

One of the plaintiffs is Luis Vizcaíno, a musician who graduated from the District School of Arts, who, thanks to a video on ICT Tacwith over a million views, ensured the participation of influencers it occurs at the expense of the comparsas, who would have been last in the event.

“It’s a lack of respect for the heritage that we have as a city, for the culture, for the endemic genres that we have, for the dancers, for the cumbiambas, for the teachers, for the spectators, for the foreigners , for citizens and for all those who have to do directly or indirectly with the cultural event in Colombia that is the Carnival of Barranquilla,” said the content creator.

He accompanied his video with messages such as “There are no dances, only influencers and wealthy groups walk” or “No dances, only drunks walk”.

One of the influencers The one who responded to these accusations is Ornella Sierra, who calls herself “Barbie Costeña” on TikTok, where she has more than 240,000 subscribers and through a video posted on the same social network, now deleted, has it she assured: “They want to blame the bad organization of the carnival on us, the influencers”.

In the material, he said he left almost at 11 p.m., like other folk groupsFor this reason, he blamed the organization’s officials, who are the ones who freed those who participated in the event, and added:

“Folk groups need sponsorship, this is given by the brands and we give visibility to this brand, this is literally what we went to do in Guacherna, we are not going to take the place of anyone Either or go out parading like it’s work.”

As for the famous vase, it seems that this conflict is only a pretext to reveal the real tensions between the artists, the cultural leaders and the troops which the organizers of the Carnival would be confronted with.

In a statement to public opinion, published by Instagram, the QuilladCarnaval and Garabato Quillad’carnaval group, led by its director, Jorge Velásquez, said: “it was not about the carnival of the city, but about commercial brands “.

In the text they point out that although they are aware of the importance of brand sponsorship, the situation to which they have been exposed causes them “sadness, helplessness and disappointment”, believing that their place in the queue, they had position 131, revealed he relegated from heritage in the Carnival.

They also denounced that when they left, at 11:10 p.m., the majority of the public was drunk, to the point that one of the participants injured one of his group members when he asked him to open the ground to the troops.

“We raised our voice of protest with the local authorities and the organizing committee. We must learn to value our heritage and give it the importance it deserves in the biggest cultural festival in our country,” reads the statement signed by Jorge Velásquez, director of QuillaDCarnaval.

In order to learn more about these complaints, from GlobeLiveMedia Colombia we contacted Jorge Velásquez, who said for this media:

“The excess of commercial brands at the top of the parade have been the protagonists, leaving many folk groups that are the heritage of the festival lagging behind in unfavorable positions. Police accompaniment and event logistics were not seen in the concentration area, so tampering was evident. By the time we started the parade (11:10 p.m.) the audience was already in a high state of inebriation, causing outbursts with our members and no one around to support them”.

In Velasquez’s concept, the Barranquilla Carnival must be oriented towards safeguarding the heritage, which lives in the folk groupsTherefore, the cumbiambas and comparsas should occupy better places, since it is the center of the event, what the public wants to see and not “a parade of drunks descending all the 44”.

He warned that this is his troupe’s first year at the Barranquilla Carnival, and while his experience has not been entirely satisfactory, he hopes these issues will be rectified for future events and lessons learned. will be taken into account in future versions.

Pero no es la única voz que expresó inconformidad, Carolina Visbal, director of Cumbiamba “A son de Millo”, said: “Aquí la problemática no es solo Guacherna, aquí la problemática es con todo lo que está pasando con el Carnaval de Barranquilla Currently”.

She explained that for several years there were problems with the organization of the Carnival, her group has been participating in the event for eight years, but due to the problems they have identified, they prefer not to dance the cumbia during THE guacherna.

“So that our changing rooms are not damaged, because we don’t like to run, so we decided to participate with an enlightened group (…) we try every year to be able to compete as the best enlightened group and we don’t have never manage to reach the juries, because we always finished the parade at three o’clock in the morning”, declared the cultural manager of this point of sale.

In his opinion, the Carnival needs significant changes, the main thing is to focus the event on the creators of the carnival, who contribute to the culture, therefore corporate sponsors should contribute to folklore groups.

“Here it is much more striking that a company brings out a procession of drunks mounted in a caravan as if we were the subjects and they the kings (…) they believe that it is striking for foreigners who come to consume the Carnival of Barranquilla and it is not like that”.

She made no secret of her discomfort when questioned about the treatment she received from the organizers. “Being a Carnival maker or not is the same because there is no respect (…) Here if you don’t have 300 or 600 million pesos in your pocket, you are not worth as a Carnival.”

These appeals, the complaint of the participants and the disagreements of those responsible for the carnival must be dealt with by the authorities, since it is evident that in the comparsas, the cumbiambas and all the artists who appear in the carnival of Barranquilla are the soul of this event . , which can only continue to occupy a central role in Colombian cultural life if relations between private companies, the public sector and artists are managed boldly.