Rio Loco in the deep end of Mediterranean fusions

Colorful crowd, colorful hair, entire families, old people in groups, toddlers all smiles, everyone was there, happy to be back at the Prairie des Filters this Saturday evening, almost as they had left it last year. Lola, 8 years old, and her friend Dina from the same year, couldn’t take any more joy: “We had fun last year so we told our parents that we would like to come back this evening to have fun !”

With a big laugh, the two little ones are already far away, carried away by the energy of the combo led by the Greek Marina Satti. Three girls on stage, footwork, a sense of rhythm and use of voices that catches the ear. Big success, great energy. Just like, a little over an hour before, the lively and very effective Berber rock of Tiwiza and their collection of musician friends had surprised. Or like sTeReØ KoMPáS (from Rio Local in fact) which impacted the hip-hop and flamenco worlds. And in another genre, captivating for many spectators, the well-rounded indie-rock of the group Terestesa. Admit this edition of Rio Loco to travel!

Sunny Golden Isles

Not very far when you think about it, in the sunny golden islands, with cloudless shores, with enchanted skies (thank you Francis Lopez, Tino Rossi) but what a journey in sounds, in tempos, in voices! Hybridization, fusion, communion, call it what you want, but the sound experiences do not in the least frighten the audiences of Rio Loco who, ultimately, come looking for this diversity, these happy marriages between sounds and the humanities.

Those of the flamenco singer Rocio Márquez and the art of the electro producer Bronquio work wonders thanks to their blend marking the sounds of tradition and the future. Very close by, the Onda Mix stage was recently resounding with the mixes of Marseille DJ Mystique who moves her world thanks to a clever mix of Latin, Afro-Caribbean and Arabic, in the same way as Ammar would later do in electro. 808, on the same stage.

All audiences are served. They navigate from one stage to another, carried by the swell of the compositions of the groups which animate the various stages scattered around the festival site at the appointed time. And it is not the arrival of the evening star which will contradict the movement. “I always leave Toulouse with a lot of energy,” confided Olivia Ruiz a few days ago. The least we can say is that she brought a lot of it during her appearance this Saturday evening on the stage of the Rio Loco festival. Radiant, the young woman radiated the audience of this 29th edition with beneficial waves after dark…