Caracas Chronicles

Back in March, dancing alongside local salsa-pop singers Servando y Florentino, Colombian reggaeton super-star Karol G told her Caracas concert audience how happy she was to be back in Venezuela. The artist was wearing a crop top with a Venezuelan-flag sequin heart and the crowd, including many women dressed like a bichota, vociferously sang and raised their arms to show lightened bracelets changing colors. The performance, with fireworks and a spectacular full of screens and animated props, was her second full house concert in Caracas’s massive new Monumental Stadium that weekend. Including a Luis Miguel concert in February, the concert seemed to certify Venezuela’s return to the region’s concert circuit.

Six months later, following the disputed July 28^th presidential elections and the subsequent unrest, at least six concerts by international artists have been canceled. Other festivals and concerts have been postponed, some indefinitely. A few sports events have also been canceled or postponed. The list, until now, includes the following:

Canceled music events:

• U.S. Latin singer Marc Anthony – Canceled. Was going to be held on August 27^th in the Monumental Stadium.
• Mexican musician Silvana Estrada – Canceled. Was going to be held on August 30^th and August 31^st in the former BOD Cultural Center.
• Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko – Canceled. Was going to be held on October 20^th on the CCCT mall’s terrace.
• Dominican-American bachata group Aventura – Canceled. Was going to be held on November 2^nd in the Monumental Stadium.
• Argentine pop duo Miranda! – Canceled. At first it was postponed from September 12^th to November 7^th. Was going to be held in Caracas’ Concha Acústica.
• Argentine pop singer Floricienta – Canceled. Was going to be held in Caracas’ Concha Acústica on November 30^th.

Postponed music events:

• Argentine rapper Trueno – Postponed indefinitely. Was going to be held on September 19^th at the Lider shopping mall in Caracas.
• Ron Santa Teresa’s Saca El Pecho Festival in Hacienda Santa Teresa – Postponed from October 5^th to December 6^th.
• Indie festival Nuestro Ritmo – Postponed from August 17^th to October 20^th in the El Hatillo historical center in east Caracas.
• Super-concert Salsa Bajo La Cúpula – Postponed from August 31^st to October 4^th in the Caracas Poliedro.

Colombian band Morat had been previously postponed from June 29^th to 16^th November. Nevertheless, the refund process was temporarily paralyzed due to the “events after July 28^th.” Until now, the Turizo, Viniloversus, Carlos Sadness, Voz Veis and Greeicy concerts and the Love is Love and Cusica festivals have not been canceled. In fact, Cusica –the country’s largest and most important musical event; a Venezuelan parallel to Bogotá’s Estéreo Picnic and the Southern Cone’s Lollapalooza– announced its 2024 expected December date after the elections. Similarly, the Nuevas Bandas Festival –a long-standing rock bands competition– was also held in September in Maracay, the first time in the festival’s history that it was held outside Caracas.

Sports wise, local brand Cuadro canceled its padel cup while the Retos sports platform postponed some of its rails and cross-country running races. Bigger marathons like Gatorade’s CCS Rock and the Nike Run remain in their original October and November dates.

“Many sports leagues and cups were not postponed or canceled because they are organized by municipalities and governorships or depend on public spaces and first aid services”, says Alejandro (fake name), who is a staff member at a Venezuelan sports-related NGO. 

Overall, sales in the Caracas Metropolitan Area dropped 29.2% from July and 19.2% in comparison to August 2023. Yet, Oliveros says, September has shown an improvement.

With soccer, baseball and basketball leagues continuing as usual, public officials had to “avoid making it seem that the country was facing an adverse situation or that it was out of normality”. 

Some observers, for example, noted the high number of police officers during the Venezuela-Uruguay soccer match in September.

Yet, Alejandro explains, many private events have faced people’s “skepticism to participate in these events until the political direction that the country may take in the coming months is not completely normalized or clarified.” Many Caracas marathons, for example, have internally reported a less fast-paced inscription rate as previous years. “Unlike previous years, many sponsors have raffled entry tickets”, Alejandro says. “In other years, just a few days after registration was open, the marathon had already been completely sold out. They even used to open new spots for more participants.”

The sales crunch

In fact, the cancellations –besides the security risks and fear behind– happened amidst this year’s worst share of monthly sales in the Caracas region according to consulting and research firm Ecoanalítica. “The August sales drop on our record is the worst of the entire year”, says Asdrúbal Oliveros, director of the firm. “Beyond the core purchases, which are food, medicine and personal care; sectors like recreation, clothing, footwear, technology had contractions that could reach up to 80%.” For Oliveros, “there was a kind of paralysis, as if society entered into a kind of collective mourning” following the elections.

Overall, sales in the Caracas Metropolitan Area dropped 29.2% from July and 19.2% in comparison to August 2023. Yet, Oliveros says, September has shown an improvement.

Surprisingly, this August movie theaters attracted 70,000 more moviegoers than in August 2023, according to José Pisano, director of the Cinema Industry Association. The cinema’s assistance rates “depend a lot on what movies are playing”, Pisano says. Box office successes like Blake Lively-starred It Ends With Us –followed by blockbusters Deadpool & Wolverine, Despicable Me 4 and Inside Out 2– led to high viewership in Venezuela, surpassing 726,600 moviegoers in August, despite the political turmoil.

The concerts industry setback

The post-electoral conflict also signifies new challenges for the concerts industry. Producers, for example, are worried that Venezuelan artists and bands –such as Rawayana, Mau y Ricky and Elena Rose– that were outspoken in their support to María Corina Machado and the opposition could be informally banned from performing inside the country. The endurance of “Rawayana’s [December] concert is the main indicator on if the government is going to allow people who think differently to come and perform”, says MaRco77, a DJ who works at producing company AGTE Live Entertainment. MaRco77 also works in Snow Entertainment, a Buenos Aires-based production company, which had to postpone the standup of Venezuelan comedian Nanutria –who has also been very critical of the government– to May 2025.

With 98 fewer flights than the 181 that the country had before the elections, 15,000 weekly seats disappeared. Less offer, and the same strained demand, means much higher ticket prices.

More importantly, he says, there are new logistical problems that hinders the production and organization of events. The closing of flight routes following Venezuela’s diplomatic estrangement with the Dominican Republic and Panama, whose governments didn’t recognize the official elections results, has led to Colombia as one of the few air routes to Venezuela from Latin America: “The tickets’ prices were are now significantly higher and that’s going to complicate a bit people coming”, MaRco77 says. “Before we had three entrance and exit points and now there’s only one to connect.”

In fact, the suspension of air routes with Panama, Peru and the Dominican Republic after the elections signified a 54% reduction in Venezuela’s international connectivity, according to the Venezuelan Association of Airlines. 

With 98 fewer flights than the 181 that the country had before the elections, 15,000 weekly seats disappeared. Less offer, and the same strained demand, means much higher ticket prices. 

New restrictions on Venezuelans with expired passports could also complicate logistics, MaRco 77 says.

“Our job is entertainment and if the conditions of logistics and connection with the world worsen, our work will also worsen”, he says. “Without a doubt, for us, the issue of having concerts here in Venezuela had represented progress… we were being seen again as a possible slot.” As the surge of concerts in the last three years showed, many international artists were now including Venezuela in their regional tours.

“Now again we are erasing half of that blackboard”, MaRco77 says, “so we have to wait for next year. Hopefully, we can continue connecting Venezuela with culture.”