MEET THE MONSTER at Festival de Viña del MarJul 30 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line Viña del Mar is a beautiful city and its annual music festival a delight. One more reason to visit Chile. The premier music festival in Latin-America, the Festival de Viña del Mar is telecast to 56 countries around the world. The February event takes place in beautiful Viña del Mar, about a 1 ½ hour drive from the Chilean capitol city, Santiago. The venue is a 15,000 seat amphitheater, Quinta Vergara. Admission for each of the six nights runs from about $8.00 U.S. for a gallery seat, to about $60.00 for front and center. It is televised nightly, starting at 10.00 PM, often running until 2 or 3 in the morning. There are warm up acts that begin earlier for the live audience. It is advised to arrive no later than 4 pm to get decent seats in the gallery. Gallery seats are not reserved. . The festival dates back to 1960, organized to attract attention to this wonderful Pacific Ocean resort city, and to showcase all the different styles of music. Today, the festival is entrenched as an annual affair to be viewed by entire families around the television each night. The TV ratings should be spectacular, because everyone is talking about it during the week it runs. The people of Chile take great pride in it. Past singers of note have included Placido Domingo, Sheena Easton, Luis Miguel, The Miami Sound Machine, Sting, Jose Luis Rodriguez, Ana Gabriel, Ricky Martin, Andy Gibb, Donna Sommer, Miriam Hernandez, Nana Mouskouri, Miguel Bose, and Julio Iglesias. A good example of its importance is that the Chilean group La Ley performed at the festival instead canceling to accept an award at the Grammies. Each night there is a featured performer. This year they included Miguel Bose, Ana Torroja, formally of the band Mecano and David Hasselhoff. Last year I remember performances from the A-TEENS, Enrique Iglesias, Pablo Herrera, and Alberto Plaza. Every year there are rumors that Gloria Estefan is coming back, but that has yet to pass. She must be especially popular, here. For several years, the emcee has been the silver haired Antonio Vodanovic. He is Chile´s answer to Bert Parks. His co-hostess is always a knockout. For the last two years that job has belonged to Cecilia Bolocco, a former Miss Universe from Chile. She is immensely popular in Chile, but not a big favorite of Argentineans, as she recently wed their former president, Carlos Menem, who, as of this writing, is under house arrest for illegal arms trading and money laundering while in office. I´d take that kind of house arrest, any day. I digress. All acts are rated by a panel of celebrity judges, but the crowd in the gallery has a major say in the awarding of “Doves.” Popular performers receive a silver dove usually after an encore. Outstanding performances rate a second encore and can receive a golden dove. Rarely, to appease the gallery, a platinum dove is awarded. The platinum dove was created recently to satisfy the crowd. In earlier days, it was an honor just to get a silver dove. Now, it is an embarrassment to walk away with nothing. Its like a roman circus at times. The gallery crowd is known to the public and performers as “The Monster”. They can be vicious with hoots and whistles when they aren´t satisfied with a performance. An angry monster provides an interesting glimpse of the poise and professionalism of the victim. In 2000, Enrique Iglesias accepted a silver dove and before starting another encore, he tossed the trophy into the audience in front of him. BIG MISTAKE!! The crowd, especially the gallery turned on him for the rude treatment of his prize. Iglesias was inundated with harsh whistles throughout the song. No golden dove for him that night. He apologized after the show for his unintended gaffe. The Monster works both ways. Their appreciative whistling for encores delays the program most nights. A show that ends at 1 am can be considered a dud. At times, the whistling will continue well into the following act. Again, a test of the performers poise under fire. Sometimes the hosts literally beg the crowd to allow the show to continue. Surprisingly, the crowd is not threatening in a physical sense. It is another interesting paradox about the people of Chile. Sidelight attractions are competitions among different cultures and their music. Ten international acts perform each program until a winner is determined on the last night. Peabo Bryson has represented the U.S. the last two years. A folklore competition is also held, with the winner decided on the penultimate evening. This past year I took note of the performance of David Hasselhoff. He was really bad. Really bad! I know, thanks to Norm McDonald on SNL, that “Germans love David Hasselhoff”, but his act must rely on a lot of electronic gizmos, because it was flat in Viña. The crowd was very gracious, maybe because Baywatch plays regularly on Sony TV here. He also introduced his comely latino wife and sang a duet with her. His best ASSet was his skin tight leather pants (pun intended) and colorful shirt, half buttoned. Shades of Saturday Night Fever. Hasselhoff went home empty handed. I hate to rip him, because he seemed like a genuinely nice guy. In short, true to Chilean culture, people of all ages and classes unite and for the most part, respectfully experience a wide range of musical entertainment. A big YUP for the Chileans in this respect.  |
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