< How Cusica Fest is trying to rebuild the Venezuelan music industry

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

If you're thinking of going to Venezuela, the travel guidance is unmistakable.

DEVENDRA BANHART: Everyone in my band is American, and they're Googling Venezuela and it's like, don't go. Everything just says do not go.

SIMON: That's the musician Devendra Banhart, who grew up in Caracas. But despite those warnings, Devendra Banhart and over a dozen other musicians packed up their gear and headed to play an alternative music festival in that country recently. NPR's Isabella Gomez Sarmiento reports.

(SOUNDBITE OF DEVENDRA BANHART SONG, "ABRE LAS MANOS")

ISABELLA GOMEZ SARMIENTO, BYLINE: Nestled in between the cool, cloudy hills of Caracas, the organizers of Cusica Fest welcomed over 10,000 people in December.

BANHART: (Speaking Spanish).

SARMIENTO: That's Devendra Banhart addressing the crowd. He tells them they're close to a very powerful place, the mountain range directly behind them. It's a landscape that's near and dear to his heart. He spent his early life here in Caracas.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ABRE LAS MANOS")

BANHART: (Singing in Spanish).

SARMIENTO: Banhart moved to the U.S. as a teenager and visited Venezuela every few years. But in the time he's been a touring musician, he's never played a show in his home country until now.

BANHART: My experience is that it's been over 20 years, and every year we're playing Caracas, and it gets really close, and right at the last minute it falls apart.

SARMIENTO: That's because of an ongoing socioeconomic crisis that's made getting by, finding necessities difficult in Venezuela. The United Nations refugee agency estimates that over 7 million people have left the country since 2015 due to violence, food and medicine insecurity and deteriorating public services. Banhart, who still has family in Venezuela, addresses that reality earnestly in his music.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ABRE LAS MANOS")

BANHART: (Singing in Spanish).

SARMIENTO: The tumultuous state of the country has taken a toll on artists trying to move the culture forward, but there are people working to rebuild a creative scene, starting by bringing Venezuelan talent like Banhart back. Maria Fernanda Burbano is one of the co-founders of Cusica Fest.

MARIA FERNANDA BURBANO: (Through interpreter) For us, it's simply about making the music industry in Venezuela grow.

SARMIENTO: Cusica Fest actually originated from an e-commerce platform. When sites like iTunes and Spotify were either difficult or impossible to access in Venezuela, Burbano and her partners set up a website where national bands could post their music and fans could buy it.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LA RECETA DE LOS PONKESITOS")

IREPELUSA: (Singing in Spanish).

SARMIENTO: Offline, Cusica grew by championing a live music scene across the country, eventually producing Cusica Fest with a lineup of more than two dozen performers.

BURBANO: (Through interpreter) What we wanted was to give that knock on the table, like, hey, we're here. Venezuela is still a spot, even though the situation can be complicated. We're still here and always thinking of the artist and audience first.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NUESTRO AMANECER")

RAWAYANA: (Singing in Spanish).

SARMIENTO: Sharing the stage with Devendra Banhart this year was Rawayana, an alt-rock band with a melange of reggae, funk and Caribbean rhythms.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "NUESTRO AMANECER")

RAWAYANA: (Singing in Spanish).

SARMIENTO: The band made a difficult decision to move out of Caracas at the height of the crisis. Six years went by before they played again in Venezuela - at Cusica.

BETO MONTENEGRO: Comparing to people or bands from different places in Latin America, we have, like, an extra layer to get into where we are.

SARMIENTO: That's Rawayana lead singer Beto Montenegro speaking over a shaky Wi-Fi connection in Caracas.

MONTENEGRO: Part of being in Venezuela is struggling with the infrastructure of the country.

SARMIENTO: He doesn't just mean the unstable internet. He says it's also the bureaucracy that makes it harder to obtain passports and visas needed to tour. It's the political turmoil in the country, which Rawayana pokes at in their most recent album, "Cuando los acefalos predominan."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "VAYANSE TODOS A MAMA")

RAWAYANA: (Singing in Spanish).

MONTENEGRO: For me, there's no reason to be one side or the other because it's very clear that, you know, going to the extreme left or extreme right - it's not the way.

SARMIENTO: So what is the way? Montenegro says maybe there's a new path, with festivals like Cusica helping empower younger generations to express themselves, even in the face of political instability and repression. A teenage fan approached him on the last day of Cusica.

MONTENEGRO: And he told me, like, Beto, you know, like, watching you live - it's been so inspiring. I have my band, and we want to play with you in four or five years, something like that, the little kid said to me.

BANHART: What I couldn't believe was that I saw these kids - they were all - they basically created their own, like, hyper-individualistic culture. I didn't meet a single person that didn't have their own band or brand.

SARMIENTO: Devendra Banhart.

BANHART: And it was the most optimistic I've ever felt about Caracas my whole life.

SARMIENTO: Burbano agrees. She says bands from other countries are already reaching out following the success of Cusica Fest for new opportunities to book shows in Venezuela.

BURBANO: (Through interpreter) It's double the work, but it's always about moving forward and making things better.

SARMIENTO: Because, she says, that also comes with double the payoff.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY BOYFRIEND'S IN THE BAND")

BANHART: (Singing in Spanish).

SARMIENTO: Isabella Gomez Sarmiento, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MY BOYFRIEND'S IN THE BAND")

BANHART: (Singing in Spanish). (Singing) My boyfriend's in the band.

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