Festival Pass: Festival de la Marimba

The looping groove of the music draws you in: the delicate shakers, the syncopated drum patterns, the soulful vocals and the dancing marimba melody on the top. It’s a thrilling polyrhythmic mix on stage at the Playa del Morro, with its iconic rock formations in the Pacific Ocean. Although we’re here in Colombia, there’s also no mistaking the music’s African origins.

The Festival de la Marimba takes place in Tumaco, situated in the south of the Colombian Pacific Coast. With a population that is almost 90% Afro-Colombian, the Pacific Coast region has suffered years of abandonment by the state and has seen some of the worst levels of violence in Colombia throughout recent years. Yet, despite this difficult social and political context, this area is home to some of the country’s richest ancestral cultures of music, dance and gastronomy. Although this music may still be relatively unknown, even within Colombia, Tumaco is certainly a hub that is driving forward the Pacific Coast’s creativity and transformation through music. One vital event that showcases this creative resistance is Tumaco’s Festival de la Marimba.

Festival de la Marimba (photo: Bryam Ruiz)

The Festival de la Marimba first took place in 2011, in part as a response to the growing attention that traditional music from the Pacific Coast was receiving. Since then, in 2015, UNESCO added marimba music and other chants and dances from Colombia and Esmeraldas department in Ecuador to their Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

The idea for the festival was established by a group of cultural practitioners and musicians in Tumaco, headed by Wisman Rogelio Tenorio Arboleda, composer and leader of the group Agrupación Changó. The festival was born out of the need for “a space for research, training, promotion and the construction of new alternatives for the safeguarding of our cultural heritage,” says Tenorio.

Although the festival’s name may suggest the focus is the xylophone-like marimba, a wooden instrument most closely resembling the West African balafon, Festival de la Marimba hosts a wide variety of instruments typical to this region. The marimba, which plays melodies, is usually accompanied by cununos (upright drums), bombos (barrel drums that are played horizontally) and guasas (shakers). These instruments make up a quintessential Afro-Colombian South Pacific group.

Tenorio notes that the marimba has a particular cultural and religious significance in the region: “The importance of this musical instrument lies in its spiritual meaning. The marimba represents our biodiversity, nature and the land, and is influenced by our ancestral myths and legends. The sounds and melodies all represent these themes when the marimba is played.”

Having begun as a festival focused solely on the music from three departments in the Pacific region – Nariño (where Tumaco is situated), Cauca and Valle del Cauca, and Esmeraldas in Ecuador (an area that largely shares the culture and music) – in 2021 the festival expanded to host international visitors from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras, which are all countries with marimba traditions.

With an estimated audience of 6,000 people at its 2021 edition, the festival has grown into a weekend event showcasing some of the most respected musicians from the Pacific Coast. These have included bands such as Agrupación Chango, Grupo Socavón de Timbiqui and Semblanzas del Río Guapi, all of whom were born into this music. They are able to transport the audience deep into the jungle through the rhythms of bambuco, patacoré, berejú, bunde, currulao and more.

The festival takes place in venues across Tumaco, with workshops and discussions planned throughout the day, culminating in a final musical showcase on a large stage. This nightly showcase takes place against the alluring backdrop of the Playa del Morro beach, providing a chance to escape the scorching heat of the city, while also indulging in the natural landscape that this music is so influenced by. If this programme of activities wasn’t enough, there are late-night arrullos, street parties that last until daybreak and present the music in its most traditional and acoustic form. Coincidentally, it is the area of Playa del Morro where you will find the safest and most comfortable hotels to host your visit in Tumaco. Once that late-night fiesta has finished you can walk straight off the beach into your hotel to rest up for another day of marimba-filled fun.

It is not only the musical element that makes Festival de la Marimba so appealing. Due to the political situation in Tumaco, cultural events such as this are vital for the socio-economic development of the region. Music from the Pacific coast is inherently tied to issues around identity and race and has now become a vehicle for giving voice to the Afro-Colombians from the Pacific.

Music and the festival “is very important for the Afro-Colombian communities of the Pacific coast,” says Adrian Sabogal, an important cultural practitioner in the region and director of the social impact organisation, Marimbea. “It happens right here within the territory and is organised and carried out by the people here. The communities know how their music, dance and traditions should be showcased in the best way and without losing their essence. I think a festival entirely developed in a region that has been discriminated against and forgotten by the state sends a beautiful and strong message of resistance and dignity.”

Tenorio also feels the festival can open doors internationally to music from the Pacific Coast, as Petronio Álvarez has been doing in Cali: “The purpose is that people outside the territory know our cultural history and thus understand why safeguarding these manifestations is important for our Black and Indigenous communities… In order to continue taking up other sounds that are in danger of extinction and give them to the new generations.”

It is through the development of this festival that Tenorio and the region’s cultural practitioners hope to instigate socio-economic change, not only in Tumaco but throughout the Pacific Coast. It’s this passion for preserving and safeguarding the tradition, while encouraging development and change, that makes the Festival de la Marimba such a cultural adventure.

The next edition of Festival de la Marimba takes place on October 13-16. For more details and ticket information visit facebook.com/Festival-de-la-Marimba

This article originally appeared in the August/September 2022 issue of Songlines magazine. Never miss an issue – subscribe today