At the Multiforo auditorium in Mexico City, Freemuse vice chairman Daniel Brown described the aims and challenges Freemuse has been working on for the past decade. He also called on the audience of 150 people to look into realities in their own country, where around 20 musicians, mainly in the north, have been murdered since 2006.

This makes Mexico one of the most deadly places in the world for musicians.

Artists like José Luis Aquina, Jesus Rey Pulido, Sergio Gomez, Valentin Elizalde and the father of drug ballads, Chalino Sanchez, were part of long list of singers whose narco-corrido music put them directly in the firing line. The music usually glorifies leaders of drug cartels and their 'exploits'.
Brown said these deaths as well as the persecution of teenage fans of rock music called emo meant it was important for Freemuse to monitor realities for musicians and their followers in Mexico. He invited the audience to contribute their own visions of this reality to the Freemuse website.


The presentation was part of the sixth edition of Ollinkan, a free music festival which normally sees almost a million people attend. This year, the monthlong event was hit by the swine flu scare which forced organisers to postpone the final two weeks. A month later, the determined festival director, José Luis Cruz, defied local authorities by putting on one of the capital's most popular music events. The thousands of mainly youthful attendants appeared to vindicate his decision.