Medio y Medio, the legendary Uruguayan festival that fuses artists, countries and generations

A restaurant next to the beach, in the Uruguayan resort of Punta Ballena, Maldonado, is the setting for Medio y Medio, the prestigious festival that celebrates its 28th edition in 2024 with some thirty national and international artists. The best of live music and gastronomy of the region merge in one of the most beautiful natural environments in Punta del Este.All over the place you can see the logo of Medio y Medio: a grand piano embraced by the roots of a tree that has been expanding since December 1995. year of its first edition. Since then, great Latin American music artists such as Charly García, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Fito Páez, Fernando Cabrera, Martín Buscaglia, Rubén Rada and Jaime Roos have performed at the festival. Thus, year after year, those roots become more and more solid, managing to become a classic not only in Uruguay but in South America. (PH: Nahuel Juárez @nahueljuarezag) Originally, the shows took place in what today functions as the artists’ dressing room: a room next to the restaurant with a capacity for 90 people in which, squeezed in, 94 spectators thanks to 4 chairs that the organizers added right at the end, with the show started. There, in front of that select audience, Charly García gave one of his last concerts, in 2019. Today, that room bears the name of Hugo Fattoruso, Uruguayan composer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist, fundamental within the country’s music and habitué of Medio y Medio.Today the summer festival expanded and moved just a few meters, to an outdoor amphitheater surrounded by nature, located in the garden of the restaurant. There is room for up to 700 people who are accommodated in front of a larger stage, but which still retains the dimensions of a venue which is designed to be an intimate appointment between the artists who get on there and the spectators, who are very close, almost in the same space. This year the line-up It’s a fusion of classic artists and “new classics.” Genres, bands and musicians of new generations who have already earned a place in the music scene for their proposals and imprint. What does an artist have to have to be a new classic? “It’s the combination of having the songs, the live show, the message and the power of getting on stage to defend those songs.”Goyo Degano, vocalist of Bandalos Chinos, talks to Filo.news in the run-up to his show. The indie rock/pop band performed at Medio y Medio on Friday, January 26 in a concert that included a setlist A beachgoer who reviewed some of his hits and some other songs not so frequent in his presentations. As usual, the performance of its members was present and even a closing jam that left the audience wanting more. On Saturday the 27th, Medio y Medio dressed up in rock/punk and received Dillom and his band, in one of the most disruptive shows in the history of the beach festival. From early in the morning, a group of fans gathered at the doors of the restaurant to wait for the Post Mortem musician, considered by both his audience and music critics as one of the most talented and transgressive artists of his generation.“For me, Dillom is an artist who is going to become a new classic because he has the power, he has the songs, the live show, he is a very complete artist”Goyo replied to the question of who he considers to be the “new classics” of Argentine music. “El Ruso seems to me to be a new classic, its music has a lot of potential to age well and that we can continue listening to it for many more years. Marilina (Bertoldi) too”Added. The complete line-up of Medio y Medio includes figures such as Skay Beilinson, Emi (from No Te Va Gustar), Fabiana Cantilo, Paulinho Moska, La Delio Valdez, Chico César, Escalandrum and a cycle by Fabián Quintiero. In addition, national artists such as Turf, Usted Señálemelo and El Kuelgue made their debut on stage. (PH: Nahuel Juárez @nahueljuarezag) As international visitors from the other side of the Ocean, the Spaniards Muerdo, Antílopez, Pedro Pastor, El Jose and Leo Rizzi arrived for the first time. At the same time, this year the festival expands its borders and will receive Purahéi Soul from Paraguay and Luisga from Los Ajenos, from Costa Rica.La program, as usual, was opened by the Uruguayan Hugo Fattoruso, on the stage baptized with his name. On this occasion, he celebrated his 80th birthday on Friday, December 29, in a special night produced with his son, bassist Francisco Fattoruso. He was accompanied by Laura Canoura, Martin Ibarburu, Nico Ibarburu and the brothers Silva.La General Directorate of Medio y Medio and the curatorship of the festival is in the hands of Leandro Quiroga Ferreres, its owner. The restaurant’s kitchen is run by chef Graciela Ferreres, Leandro’s mother. The soul and spirit of Medio y Medio bear the imprint of their other host, Lupa Quiroga, Leandro’s father.

Original source in Spanish