Bejuco (COLOMBIA)

LONDON BREWERIES STAGE
SATURDAY 7:00PM-8:00PM

SOUTH STAGE
SUNDAY 2:00PM-2:45PM

TD MAINSTAGE BANDSHELL
SUNDAY 10:00PM-11:00PM

Hailing from the port city of Tumaco in the southwestern corner of Colombia, Bejuco augments traditional hometown música pacifica with various global sounds, especially Afrobeat, to concoct a tasty new style called Bambucobeat. The band chose the name Bejuco because in the dictionary of the jungle it denotes a hanging plant stem, and in life’s vocabulary it signifies truth, power, wisdom and evolution.

Afrobeat has become synonymous with the global African diaspora. The African connection has always been a vital component of música pacifica, not only as a musical foundation, with elements like call and response and percussion rhythms that are tied to the African continent, but also as a way to re-articulate Afro-Colombian identity within the wider social and political sphere of Colombia. The struggles associated with black music worldwide are not unlike the struggles faced by Colombians in the Pacific. Now, “La Perla del Pacífico” is musically expanding Fela Kuti’s Pan-Africanism to opposite sides of the globe, representing the myriad of cultures within Afro-Colombia as well as the entire diaspora.

Bejuco’s debut album, Batea, was released in 2021, and a new recording is eagerly anticipated later this year. Once again, “audiences can expect the strong presence of [the band’s] ancestral roots and the harmonic and percussive influences of Nigerian Afrobeat”. Bejuco is currently touring outside of Colombia for the very first time.