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Music

Words and Photo by Linda Tovar

It was a bright and sunny Saturday, August 14th, 2010 afternoon, in the heart of historic downtown Los Angeles, marking the 1st Annual Visionary Sounds Music Benefit Festival presented by Mucho Wednesday's and Jarritos. This 21 and over Music Benefit Festival began at 2 p.m. for both those "early birds" and "mid-day wake-ups." The festival was held between two venues: La Cita Bar and Bang Gallery.

La Cita Bar is home to the Mucho Wednesday family where every Wednesday night, opens its doors to showcase Latino musicians. The Bang Gallery, located at what used to be the Banco Popular, is an art venue that is open to art and music aficionados every second Thursday of the month for the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk.

Both venues are well known for celebrating the love of a craft. The festival jump started as Concepto Tambor hit the La Cita Stage. This talented group of musicians from the Long Beach area were full of energy, smiles, and banged their way into the hearts of those in the vicinity. The next performance was at the Bang Gallery, which, from La Cita is 2 blocks away. In between venues the Jarritos Tent offered a resting location with couches, tables, and free samples of all the Jarritos favorites. At the Jarritos tent a food court was also available to festival goers, along with fashion and accessory vendors, and lives silk screen printing.

After making the trip from La Cita to the Jarritos Tent, the Bang Gallery had already popped off the festival with DJs and their first performance of the day, Santero. Their Cumbia/Hip-Hop/Reggae set rocked attendees as they danced and watched the set from the dance floor. Once the festival officially started the line-up continued to bring diverse groups, musicians and performers.

La Cita Stage was a full house when festival headliners Nina Dioz and Perrozompopo took the stage one after the other. Both headlining sets had the crowds, different in both style and sound.

All musicians were greeted and welcomed by festival goers whose eclectic style and presence brought the festival to another level of excitement.

The festival was rare for its kind. It truly was a unique Los Angeles experience that will go down in history for celebrating Latinos and bridging the gap between international musicians and aficionados. The festival overall was a huge success. The festival raised money for Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission which works to empower community through developing projects in education, leadership, and service.

To learn more about their organization visit www.proyectopastoral.org

For the full list of musicians check out www.VisionarySounds.com

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