The madness happened in a 100% natural environment, in which the green of the trees and the grass witnessed throughout the weekend how a thousand people from Barcelona came to their appointment with this new micro-festival. MO_BA was born strongly. It was born to stay. It has shown Barcelona that a different, ground-breaking and far from the common proposal is possible. MO_BA has allowed many young people in the city to give an opportunity to less common sounds. MO_BA has allowed a multitude of local artists, used only to play some opening sets at the different clubs in town thanks to their residences, to close stages at an event in which they shared, not only a line-up but a set time with some big names of the international scene. MO_BA has opened us all the doors of our dreams. MO_BA has made Vila Habana our home.
It was a dream weekend. The city of Barcelona, set up with a massive agenda plenty of events, concerts and festivals of all kinds, just vibrated with amazing gigs such as Primavera Sound, in May, Sónar, in June, or Cruïlla, in July. And, just in case it wasn’t enough, at the beginning of August, the Dutch DGTL festival was arriving loaded with first-level artists. But no, it wasn’t enough. July’s last weekend was free of big parties. The magic Vila Habana location (a Cuban colonial house located in Castellbisbal, just 20 minutes away from the city centre), was too. Nothing could go wrong. And nothing went wrong. Proyectual gave the green light and the story began.
Vila Habana distributed the artists alongside three stages. The one with the easiest access, the mainstage, called Plaçeta Stage, was the one with the highest capacity. Located in front of the main facade of the house and hidden under leafy vegetation, it offered a more elongated than not wide dancefloor and a line-up addressed to the most friendly and colourful rhythms. Artists like MLiR, Joakim or Tama Sumo acted there on Friday. The German, resident of Panorama Bar at Berghain, enjoyed the last 2 and a half hours on the decks of the village in front of an audience that didn’t feel like going to rest. The disco sounds accompanied by a blunt house bass set the pace of that closing set, before Lake People made us fall in love with his beautiful live music on Saturday, preceding Young Marco‘s and FunkinEven‘s sets. These last two showed a massively big musical knowledge, having to improvise due to last minute Joy Orbison‘s and Tornado Wallace‘s absences. We missed them, of course, but not because of lack of quality on the dancefloor.
MO_BA thought of all audiences and, even knowing that disco and house music has many fans in Barcelona, it wanted to provide the music lovers gathered in Vila Habana a memorable night at the Fabeles Stage. It isn’t easy to reach that corner. One must surround the main facade of the house, cross through the mysterious Vila Habana‘s tunnel and thus access the back zone of the village. There, a labyrinthine wooden structure awaited us with the most experimental and daring sounds of the weekend. DJ Seinfeld shined above the rest. The Swede felt brave and left back quickly the house tunes to provide us with an epic breakbeat and IDM selection with constant dark tones. He even used Lanark Artefax’s ‘Touch Absence’ or 10 Ton’s remix of Tessela‘s ‘Hackney Parrot’. The Mexican Rebolledo, who even used some Damon Jee tracks, or the British Luke Solomon also left the decks of the Fabeles Stage on the top, before the collective Horse Meat Disco and Tiger & Woods brought it closer to the house and the disco genres in the second running day.
What deserves its own mention was San Proper‘s performance throughout the weekend. It got us all surprised, combining also house, electronica and techno music unexpectedly late at night. The Dutchman had already played in the afternoon, but he wanted to show up some more vinyls at the Casa Stage. It’s the smallest one of the three. It’s located on the upper terrace of Vila Habana, just up the side stairs, and it offers an even more intimate setting than the rest of the decks. We could enjoy rarities of all kinds before the Dutchman was encouraged to come down with us to the Plaçeta to close up the day with Tama Sumo, something he also did the following day. Actually, Casa Stage was reserved for an assortment of local talent from Barcelona that, during the 32 hours MO_BA lasted, gave the audience a space for chilling and resting without giving up the music.
We witnessed the birth of a story that will give us a lot to talk about. We witnessed the birth of a new boutique festival 100% alternative and focused on the most delicate and complex sounds, those that are difficult to host among general audiences. We witnessed the birth of MO_BA microfest and, now, at Xceed, we only wish MO_BA to continue giving us many reasons to smile in the forthcoming years. Welcome!
(Cover Image: © Oriol Reverter (@yuritech_))
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