Peruvian Music Awards

Saturday night I decided I really wanted to see some live music.  Back home, we hear live music at least once a week and I’ve been missing it a lot (surprisingly there was almost none in Huaraz – none that I discovered at least).  I happily discovered there was concert happening with a famous Afro-Peruvian musician.  Showing up without a ticket, I asked all around for the location of the box office, which apparently didn’t exist.  I was sent of a wild goose chase all around the stadium.  Finally, a security guard told me to go back to where I was before and enter thru a ‘special’ gate for free….arriving there I somehow made it in the theater ticketless – Asked about five times for ticket; I just mentioned that I was told it was free and they let me through (?!)  It saved me 45 Soles so I wasn’t going to ask questions!  What I assumed was a concert turned out to be a music award show….complete with hosts and awards.  Worked out fantastic though – I saw probably 20 different musicians perform all different types of Peruvian music.  I took quite a few short videos to demonstrate the different types and will be posting them shortly! 

 After that concert I had planned to attend another show.  My favorite Afro-Peruvian band was planning in my neighborhood at 11pm (okay so I really only know one Afro-Peruvian band but seen I got their CD, last fall, I have listed to it hundreds of times, they are really fantastic!)  However, during my 5 minute taxi ride to the concert, we were pulled over by the police (a pretty typical event) and then the power in all of Barranco went off.  Something I had experienced a couple of time in Huaraz but my driver said was incredibly rare for Lima.  He continued to tell me how dangerous it would be and how worried he was (thanks!)  Being only a few blocks from the concert we drove by and everyone has gathered outside and were searching for taxis, having really no other option and doubting the power would return anytime soon, we headed back to the hostel.  So much for getting to see my favorite Peruvian band play, it really was just a bizarre event!