Step Aside, Coachella! Mexico’s Festival Ceremonia is the Year’s Most Queer Music Event
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Queer social media lit up last week when the lineup for this year’s Coachella Music Festival, which takes place every April in California, was announced. And many proclaimed this year’s roster of performers was the most queer yet. But step aside, Coachella, because Festival Ceremonia — taking place in Toluca, Mexico, this April — could be the most queer music event of 2019.
Festival Ceremonia describes itself on its website:
It’s a cultural celebration, a music festival that pulls together the best and most representative of national and international music scenes in a single weekend.
After six years, our festival presents a singular event in which music, cultural expression and food combine to form a day full of fun, new experiences.
Massive Attack and Aphex Twin will headline Festival Ceremonia 2019, and the lineup is full of many LGBTQ artists, some of whom will also be appearing at Coachella later that same month. (Festival Ceremonia takes place April 6, while Coachella takes place the weekends of April 12–14 and 19–21.)
Among those queer artists are Haitian-born DJ and producer Kaytranada and experimental R&B artist serpentwithfeet, as well as Pabllo Vittar — Brazil’s take on pop princess Britney Spears who also happens to be a drag queen — and Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk band that has forever been in trouble with the Russian government.
While Festival Ceremonia of years past has included queer artists in its lineup, this is the first time the roster of performers has included so many LGBTQ people. (Last year saw Beck and St. Vincent headline, the year before Björk, Underworld and James Blake.)
And though Coachella technically features more LGBTQ artists than Festival Ceremonia (including Janelle Monáe, Jaden Smith, Sophie, King Princess, Christine and the Queens and Blood Orange), the California festival spans over three days as opposed to a single Saturday.
Coachella also proves to be quite cost-prohibitive for many people. A weekend Coachella pass will run you $430. Meanwhile, a day pass to Festival Ceremonia costs $85–$131.
