A great return is expected for this January Groovefest International Dancehall Festival and Championship 2023, after three years of suspension due to the health emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The event, in its sixth version, will unfold between friday 13 and Sunday 15 January in the gymnasium of the Liceo Andrés Bello, in the commune of San Miguel, and it will be a real party of dancehall culture, with powers, dance classes with teachers brought from Jamaica, live music and much more, as comments to Reggae Chalice one of its organizers, Holland BFly.
“Son 3 event days. In the morning there are classes and in the afternoon competitions. It is a festival where one goes to learn, there will be masterclasses that are held with well-known Jamaican teachers with a long history in the culture”, raises the organizer.
“Learning from teachers is priceless”
For this version, the well-known dancehall dancers will arrive from the Caribbean island Dance Bling, Mara Jackhammer, Joel Immortal and Kool Ravers, who will teach classes and will also be juries of the group competition that will be held.
“For us it is a dream, It is very gratifying to be able to bring these Jamaicans because they are masters, it's your culture, It's theirs and we only take it to learn and be able to live it a little., but the culture is theirs”, express holland.
The also dancer adds that “being able to learn from teachers is priceless, It is the best, That's why we only bring teachers from Jamaica and we don't bring teachers from other countries., no matter how good exponents they are, to give it the tone 100% culture to the event and we also bring them to be sworn in so that the crews have a real dancehall jury to get feedback that no other teacher can give you, that is why it is very important for us to have Jamaicans”.
Holland BFly also highlights the growth of this festival since its first version in 2014, Well, they started there bringing a teacher from the island, then they were 2 and for this occasion they are already 4.
Likewise, values that this event is part of the only dancehall championship for groups or crews in the country because “there are solo competitions, de dancehall queen, but this is the only competition of crews, the only festival this big here by dancehall, not only in Chile but in Latin America”.
Sound System and live bands
About the music, Holland BFly says that two live bands will participate and that there will also be a sound system during the conference, since this musical expression is closely related to the development of dancehall.
“Have 2 live music shows. One is Puerto Rico, who are some dancehall singers from Valparaíso and we have Afro Urban Clash, which is a band that plays dancehall beautifully. This is the second time they are with us. At the last Groovefest they were with us doing the classes with the Jamaican teachers with live music”, raises the organizer.
“This year the same will be repeated, On Sunday we have classes with live music with the band and then they present their shows themselves in the afternoon between the competition”, emphasized.
What is the origin of this festival??
—Groovefest departed in the year 2014 with the intention of unifying, massify and make spaces for people to learn and train. When did we start with all this, international workshops and masterclasses were very few, I do not eat now, So that's why the initiative came out and also for us, the organizers, being able to train with Jamaican teachers. we started in 2014 and it was a hit and from there we have done until today. The only time we stopped was during a pandemic, we already have 3 years without doing it, so now it's a magnificent lap, they are all waiting for it.
What are your expectations for this comeback??
We don't have such high expectations., but we do want it to come out beautiful, come out perfect as always, that the participants can live a unique experience, that they have a beautiful feedback from their Jamaican teachers and that the public can fully enjoy the enjoyment of the dancers when they compete, when they dance dancehall, let people be nourished by this culture, that's why we want to put so much sound system, bands, because we want it to be cultural. We expect a lot of people to come and we hope that everything turns out wonderful as it has been all the years before and we hope for a groovefest 2.0 after the pandemic.
The coordinates
like we said, the Groovefest 2023 will be held on Fridays 13, Saturday 14 and Sunday 15 from January at Andrés Bello High School Gymnasium, located in Ricardo Morales 3370, San Miguel, near the El Llano Metro (L2).
Tickets are priced at $5.000 Y 2 “Echoes of Sound Systems – When the Two 7’s Clash” is presented as the Sound Clash to end all the sound clashes that will compete for the first major $8.000, which can be purchased on the days of the event in the same gym or also by contacting the Festival Instagram.
