The Santa Maria Music Fest, announced for this summer by the luxurious hotel The One Gallery in the North Keys of Cuba, has withdrawn from its promotions some of the artists who were originally invited. The disappearance of the official poster for the event by the American rapper Arcángel or the request by the Puerto Rican singer La India to remove her name from the advertisements are reminiscent of the rout of musicians that characterized the San Remo Festival, organized by the Cuban authorities in 2022.
For the moment, none of those who have rejected the invitation have alleged their disagreement with the Cuban government or with the cultural policies of the regime. The event, which will take place between August 17 and 20, initially announced on its official website the participation of singers Tito El Bambino, Charly & Johayron, Tekashi 6ix9ine, Ñengo Flow, Fixty Ordara & Ja Ruley and Isaac Delgado.
Others, such as Arcángel, who featured prominently in early promos, was removed from the poster without explanation. It is only known that he is currently on tour in Spain.
Who does seem like a safe bet is the American rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, who has recently been in the news for his closeness to Cuba.
As for India, denied his participation on their social networks and asked, “please”, to be removed from the promotional video. “I am already receiving messages from people who believe that I will be in Cuba. In those days I will be on tour in another country,” she warned.
Who does seem like a safe bet is the American rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine, who has recently been in the news for his closeness to Cuba, where did you record a video in Pinar del Río, for a production made with the Cuban Lenier Mesa in Pinar del Río and now they plan to record another.
Tekashi was also the center of a controversy for throwing dollars in front of the Packard Hotel, in El Prado, Havana, causing a police operation and internet outages. Finally, the official authorities denied his participation in the event, which was attributed to two imitators. This did not prevent the official media from launching a campaign against the gesture of throwing money, which characterizes the musician, as an “imperial insult” from the US.
Tito el Bambino, another of the guests at the festival, posted on his Twitter account instagram photos of his visit to Cuba a few months ago, and assured that he could not resist “the Cuban seasoning.”
The establishment, inaugurated this year, offers all kinds of luxuries for the four days that the festival will last, for a price of $951 for three nights
The hotel that will sponsor the event, The One Gallery, is located in Cayo Santa María, in the north of the province of Villa Clara, and is managed by the Gaviota group, one of the companies controlled by Gaesa, the economic arm of the Armed Forces. Cuban.
The establishment, inaugurated this year, offers all kinds of luxuries for the four days that the festival will last, for a price of $951 for three nights (the minimum stay required) or $1,021 for four nights. Other hotels in the area compete with The One Gallery’s prices, but all are around a thousand dollars.
Also billed as a “cultural conference,” the Santa Maria Music Fest aims to attract foreign visitors during the low tourist season.
In 2022, a few months after the harsh repression of the 9/11 protests, internationally renowned artists such as the Spanish Carlos Torres, Andy and Lucas, and Alex Ubago, and later the Italian Denise Faro, in addition to the Cubans Arlenys Rodríguez Lazo and Raul Paz, they made public their refusal to appear at the San Remo Music Awards Festival, organized by the Cuban regime and whose organizing committee included Lis Cuesta, wife of President Miguel Díaz-Canel.
Most of those who denied any link to the event cited reasons related to the situation of political prisoners and the living conditions in a “dictatorship that puts children in jail,” as the singers Andy and Lucas put it.
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