"We discovered that there are few music tourism offerings other than parties or music festivals"
In 2025 we’ll be hosting two editions of the Music Tourism Convention in different parts of the Global South.
In April, we’ll be travelling to China for the Xichang Music Tourism Convention, while in November we’ll be going to the Caribbean for the Anguilla Music Tourism Convention.
As we get ready and inspired for these forward looking gatherings, we’re adding new content to our Music Tourism Hub, a place to discover stories, profiles and resources from people working at the forefront of Music Tourism from all around the world.
On this occasion, we head up to Medellin in Colombia to discover everything related to one of the music walking tours that we haven’t stopped talking about at our office for the past couple of months.
From Tango, Cumbia to Reguetón: Exploring Medellín's Soundtrack Through the Destino Sonoro Music Walking Tour
An interview by Liliana Ramirez
Medellín, Colombia, is a vibrant music destination with an incredible ecosystem. Destino Sonoro is a city tour led by Ana Zuluaga and Lali Guerrero, who bring their extensive experience in the music industry to the project. The tour includes stops featuring tango, rock, cumbia, reguetón, jazz, and other genres, making Medellín a must-visit location for music enthusiasts in Latin America.
Music Cities Events spoke with the founders of this initiative about how they promote the city’s sonic and creative heritage while showcasing the talent of local artists and creators.
Before creating this musical walking tour in Medellín, what experience did you have in the tourism or music industry?
Before Destino Sonoro, we -Ana Zuluaga and Lali Guerrero, the founders of this initiative and publicists by profession— had the opportunity to work in various roles related to the creative music industry, such as managers, bookers, content creators, communication leaders, and project managers, with artists and at city events like Medellín Music Week or Negro Fest, to name a few.
We were drawn to music out of curiosity and were very interested in understanding everything that happened “behind the scenes” and the business that existed behind this universe. Since university, where we studied together, we started attending Circulart—one of the most important cultural markets for music in Ibero-America—and furthering our education in these fields and knowledge areas, where the creative and planning foundations of the advertising world were always present.
This experience allowed us to realise that one of the things that make us unique in the world is the diverse musical and cultural heritage we share as Colombians, and our creative potential, which is, ultimately, what makes things happen and what has enabled our sounds to reach the ears of the world.
Inspired by this, Destino Sonoro and this tour through Medellín were born, a cultural tourism initiative that connects the creative and tourism sectors through the creation of experiences around music, to promote, among locals and tourists, the collective appropriation of our Colombian sound and creative heritage.
How have you managed to position this tour in such a tourist-heavy city like Medellín, which has so many plans to offer its visitors, such as seeing Botero's sculptures, visiting Comuna 13, or partying in El Poblado and Parque Lleras?
Medellín has stood out in the world thanks to its creativity, its stories of resilience, social transformation, and also, thanks to its music.
From the golden age of record labels when Discos Fuentes, among other iconic labels like Codiscos or Sonolux, settled in Medellín, to today, when several artists from the city like Karol G, Maluma, J Balvin, or Feid have remained at the top of global digital music streams, the world has had its ears tuned to the city.
While music has been an element that has attracted visitors interested in discovering a bit about our culture, we also discovered that there are few music tourism offerings other than parties or music festivals.
Additionally, most spaces and events in the city with an "educational" component around music are generally of limited access or are aimed at a more specialised audience like artists and other active participants in the industry.
So, we believe that some of the elements that have helped position us include:
Timing: Since this plan takes place in the afternoon, it opens up to a broader and more family-friendly audience, where adults, minors, or even parents, who find this time an opportunity to do something cool and different, can participate. Most music-related activities in the city are usually held at night.
It's not a bar tour: And even when we may visit some, the focus is not on "partying" but on getting to know a story and generating deeper conversations, where besides discovering these spaces, people have the opportunity to discover new sounds and meet some of the artists and players that are part of the music value chain in the city.
The way we communicate through our digital channels: The entire sales, customer service, and after-sales process is done digitally.
Lastly, and perhaps there are more elements, unlike other city tours where music is usually a compliment, in this one, music is the centre, something that touches all of us, and where we all have a story to tell.
What kind of people take this tour? Is it mostly locals from Medellín or visiting tourists?
We have had both audiences, but the local one has been the main one. This has allowed us to discover that there is a large number of city and country residents who are looking for experiences different from the everyday or who want to rediscover the city from another perspective. This has been a very powerful finding.
We have also had visitors from other countries, and we believe that regardless of where they come from, they are people looking for unique and differentiated experiences around music, art, and culture.
Discos Fuentes is an emblem of the recording industry in Colombia, which, it's worth mentioning, started in Medellín along with other labels like Codiscos, Sonolux, or Zeida. How did you manage to get inside the Discos Fuentes house, a place of pilgrimage which is a secret only known by connoisseurs or specialists?
These connections are the result of previous work, many conversations, and processes that we carry out within the project. Fortunately, with all the allied spaces we visit, including Fuentes, we have found the willingness and desire to make it possible. Being able to visit this particular space, like others where there is usually no free access, is a gift and sometimes a dream come true for the people who visit us.
Even in places that are open to the public, when visited on this tour, a different experience than usual is lived, making it special.
An important part of what we do daily is precisely this process of research and connection, searching for new places, creators, collectors, theatres, bars, and "hidden gems" that inspire and have given life to our music, and without a doubt, Discos Fuentes is part of this repertoire due to its undeniable contribution to the history and sonic legacy of Colombia.
The alternative scene has been very important in Medellín, as depicted in the movie ‘Rodrigo D’ with punk and legendary bands like I.R.A. or Mutantex, or with rock and metal with institutions like Masacre, Kraken, or Parabellum. Even Juanes talks about his influences and experiences in the city during his youth. Is there a stop on the tour dedicated to these alternative genres?
On the Medellín Destino Sonoro tour, we cover various musical genres from different perspectives. Each tour is a surprise, so they are all different, as the intention is to delve a little into each of those sounds that are part of the city's identity and to do so, we might need more than one day.
To date, we have visited places and spoken with creators related to salsa, cumbia, rap, electronic music, classical music, tango, among others, and we are currently in search of other destinations and stories that address precisely rock, indie, punk, to include them soon as part of the tour, as they are genres that undoubtedly always come up in the conversation.
Puerto Candelaria recently released a miniseries called ‘La Sociedad de la Cumbia’ with a stage that recreates cumbia halls during the fifties in Medellín. This makes me wonder if there are places on the city tour that transport you to other eras and show you the greatness of that musical past.
Throughout the tour, we address a context of the past, the present, and a vision of the future of music. So, beyond looking for places that explicitly reflect a specific era, the very exercise of telling stories, talking with certain people, and delving into certain genres, already takes us on a journey through time through sounds.
Cumbia, moreover, is a key element in our conversations, not only because it is a crucial sound in our identity as Colombians from a musical perspective but also because culturally, it reflects our history and our territories, a story of migrations and mestizaje.
How do you handle the inclusion of reggaeton? On one hand, Medellín has a lot of tradition behind it, but at present, many of the genre's global stars are from the city, such as Karol G, Maluma, and J Balvin, who have even immortalised places like Provenza Street in their songs. What place does this genre have on the tour?
Reggaeton has been another one of those topics that almost always come up in conversation on each tour, and although it may seem like a genre of "love and hate", for us, the contribution to the industry that these artists you mention, and many others who have emerged in Medellín, have achieved, is undeniable. Not only creators but also companies, studios, festivals, agents, and events around this genre.
Regardless of tastes or topics that some people find controversial, we are very interested in the cultural phenomenon this brings, its background, how it was born, how it arrived in the city, how it became popular, and the truth is, we cannot deny its global impact. This has been one of the reasons why the world has recently turned its eyes to Medellín. So instead of excluding it, we actively include it from a constructive perspective, focusing on what we do like, what works, and what contributes.
And, although at the moment there isn't a specific stop on the tour related to reggaeton, we are already advancing in conversations to do so, and why not, make one focused solely on that genre.
Despite the well-established Colombian music industry and how much other cities like Cali, Bogotá, Cartagena, or Barranquilla could share about their musical history, there are no initiatives like this. What advice would you give to those who want to start such a tour in other places?
The best advice is to start, get informed, study, and build a meaningful story and experience, not just go to a place for the sake of it, but give it a purpose. Those cities you mentioned have been on our radar since we started the tour, and it is part of our vision and plans to reach other cities that are also "Musical Destinations."
We recently began strengthening and supporting the design of a cultural experience in Quibdó, in the Pacific region of Colombia, with a group of women leaders from that territory who want to showcase the music and sounds of their region and its heritage.
We are convinced that Colombia is a country with incredible and diverse cultural and sound wealth and that this is a unique element for tourism that we can all leverage. So, we invite people who want to develop similar initiatives to reach out to us. We are open to collaborating to promote our musical heritage from different regions.
What would be 10 anthems of the city that you consider essential to describe the soul of the city?
In a city with such great musical diversity, it’s a bit difficult to answer this question. So instead of mentioning 10 anthems, we would rather share 10 recommended artists that you should have on your radar:
Killabeatmaker, Alcolirykoz, Puerto Candelaria, Federico Goes, La Tifa, Providencia, The Virginia Valley, Crudo Means Raw, Solo Valencia, Wganda Kenya
We hope you enjoyed the insights that Ana Zuluaga and Lali Guerrero shared about the success of Destino Sonoro! If you're looking for ideas and tools to turn your city into a music destination, or have a music tourism project that you'd like to bring to new cities, make sure to join us in 2025 for the Xichang Music Tourism Convention in China and the Anguilla Music Tourism Convention in the Caribbean.
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