Earlier this month, I was honored to DJ alongside Bogotá mainstays DJ Criollo and DJ Mixiticius at the second edition of the Invasión Tropical series (tagline: "Venimos en Son de Paz"). These two artists have been holding down the alterna-Latino scene at progressive venues across the city for some time now. I met them at another party concept they hosted at the bar Latino Power called La Universidad de la Champeta, which was designated to create a space for afro-colombian music that's historically found its home on the Atlantic coast, but is now emerging as a force on national and international levels with the complete takeover of champeta urbana.
Invasión Tropical was made even more cohesive thanks to promotion from Radio Mixticius and the design skills of El Criollo who also happens to be a talented graphic designer. He branded the event with a rotating series of flyers, working with a motif that cross-blended references uniting psychedelic alpacas and sci-fi satire film Mars Attacks. The lineup brought together the aforementioned DJs, VJ Songo and DJ Zallia, who was visiting from Philadelphia.
For me, this party was a great example of the types of inclusive spaces that long-term community organizing and intentional, thoughtful event production can create.