November 19, 2009

By By Ayala Ben-Yehuda, L.A.

Some of Mexican alternative music's top acts are scheduled to join the Black Eyed Peas Dec. 5 at Goliath Festival, a new massive event at Alameda Poniente park in Mexico City.

Sponsored by Nextel and Trident, the 14-hour event joins dozens of local and international electronic and alternative acts. In addition to the Black Eyed Peas, the lineup includes Thievery Corporation, Pitbull, Justice, Fischerspooner, the Faint, Chromeo, Crystal Castles and Shiny Toy Guns. Puerto Rican urban alternative duo Calle 13, Chetes, Austin TV, Jumbo, Bengala, Liquits, Los Concorde, Sussie 4, Los Bunkers and Ni?a Dioz are some of the Latin acts on the bill.

Promoter Pedro Moctezuma's Mantequilla Live is expecting about 50,000 people at the site, which will include several music stages as well as an extreme sports area and a "holistic village" with tai chi and other free activities. So far about 20,000 tickets have been sold to the public and distributed to sponsors, according to Sason Bishope Parry, one of the event's producers. Parry, who has been a producer of the Ultra Music Festival, is also a performer at Goliath as Planet B.

Tickets to the event range from $60 to $192. Several of the performers booked for Goliath are emerging acts on Mantequilla Records, the label associated with the event's promoter Mantequilla Live.

The idea is to make Goliath "an international brand starting in Mexico," says Parry, and make it a multiple-day festival. "The economy is what it is, but it's an opportunity to take advantage of a time when a lot of people don't want to take that kind of risk."

The budget for the event cost "multiple seven figures," according to Parry. "We are hoping we will break even or make a couple bucks."

Goliath has been promoted on billboards, fliers, and radio and TV spots. Parts of the festival will be broadcast live during Teleton 2009, the annual national fundraiser for disabled children that counts on hundreds of TV and radio broadcasters in the region (with Televisa broadcasting locally).

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