Baja California

All My Friends. A DIY Tijuana Music Festival

Come and enjoy the talent of the city

2. I see no corporate sponsors on the website, in fact I see no sponsors at all, Did you leave them out on purpose or is there little to no interest from sponsors for a event of this sort?

Unlike every other festival, there are no big corporations behind this festival, I like to think of it as the mom´s and pop's festival of Mexico, we have some state support, but not financial. Like Los Abarrotes de La Esquina, we'll sell beer but the festival it's not presented by other than ourselves.

The fact is Tijuana is hard for sponsorship, national brands still think everyone consumes in San Diego and they think is useless to get visibility if they are not turning that into sales. And the people on the positions who give you sponsors, have little to none knowledge of what we are doing.

And then there is the creative part, we were working with a big sponsorship at the beginning of this year, but we would have to bring bands, that we don't like, it killed the purpose of doing the festival.

I'm sure we will find the perfect fit one day for sponsorship, and we'll be able to bring acts we only dream about.

3. In the world of Indie Music, it seems like fans try so hard to be unique and rare, your line up of foreign headliners seems to follow that line ( I have only heard of Helado Negro from the 3 "headliners";) . What would you say to people who have heard of the event and have seen the local bands billed all over town but never have heard of the American bands booked about the festival?

Be ready to be amused, surprised, listen to them on our website www.amfmf.com , I'm sure you'll like some, if not they will be 3 stages where you can choose from.

As an avid concert-goers myself, there is not better reward for a music lover, than to discover a new act, you didn't't had any expectations for.

As far as my picks, You should check Beaters from San Diego, I just saw them on El Burro Rayado en Tijuana, and blew me away.

If you are into Doom Folk, check out Chelsea Wolfe, her voice would hypnotized you, the theater would be a perfect stage for her presentation.

Also I'm really into Pangea and TheLovely Bad Things, who recently played FYF.

4. Following last year's AMF Festival there was loads of media and buzz about the event, I know you had some shows after the festival but many failed to live up to the hype of the festival. It seems like momentum did not follow. Do you have plans to continue making shows after AMF fest 2012 and if so what can we expect from AMF 2012- 2013?

Those Chilean shows were pretty good, and the Beach Fossils Posada was a total success. The Horror House in the other hand… well we might do a Posada again, as long as we get the act that we want for it.

Our only plan right now is to focus AMF13, and get stronger bigger connections as we grow.

We run pretty organically, we aren't the typical promoters, that do shows because it's money, hype or cred. We have to really really like it, that's why we don't do that many shows.

5.Tijuana bands have always had a buzz around them on a national level in Mexico. Right now it seems like the best bands in the country, at least those still trying to surface on a more massive level, come from Tijuana.

You guys have branded AMF very well both in and out of Mexico. Are there any plans to make AMF a booking, management or record label in order to promote the handful of Tijuana talents going around?

Right now our main priority is to consolidate the festival, for next year. We are bouncing the idea to have a booking/pr agency, will have to wait on that one

6.It seems like your only competition for this event is general apathy from the public. General apathy amongst youth for events in the city, especially musical runs rampant as of late. I have been a promoter of events in the city for over 6 years and have changed the way I do my shows to small and boutique like shows for niche markets. That being said, how many people do you expect to be at the show on Nov 17?

Last year we had 2,500 attendees, hopefully this year we can top that. We have a much diverse lineup that I'm sure we will do it. We have punk from Tijuana, Mexicali and San Diego, we have the ever lasting doomed party of Ruidosón, the theater stage it's going to be filled with beautiful music, and we will get to see exciting acts from other parts of Mexico.

Plus as an exclusive for San Diego Red, the goods from Kokopelli, Al Volo and Ocho Mella will be there too.

Follow Tony Tee on Twitter @tonyteefiesta

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