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BULTO

Bogotá, Colombia

Alejandro Arango (Hypomania), Jesús Florez (Jesuz X), Luis Porras (Not a DJ)
1) How has BULTO played a role in your local community and music scene?

We think the LGBTIQ+ community has finally found a safe space within the electronic music scene, away from the traditional circuit music and pop-leaning cliché offerings, while reclaiming what it was created by our predecessors in the first place.

When we threw our first party at a sex club –to set the tone of the vibe we wanted– our main goal was that, to provide a shelter for all the bodies and identities, where also sex and a techno party could coexist in the same space. But then it became something bigger: it became a place for physical and mental liberation, with no boundaries, prejudices and discrimination free. People got it and the response has been incredibly rewarding. Since the first party we have seen long queues 2 hours before the opening, sold outs in a matter of hours, and more important: a sense of belonging by the assistants who keep growing with each party and slowly became a thigh-knit community, becoming ‘addicted’ to that feeling of freedom and liberation, craving for the next BULTO right after they leave, while educating themselves about music history and the immeasurable contributions made by queer and POC.

With the party gaining more traction and attention, we were able to start booking some of our dream artists like Juana, Schacke, Gerald VDH and more recently CEM and MCMLXXXV for our first ‘analversary’. All of them part of the queer scene in their respective countries, which is something we aimed as well here: to make visible all the queer talent, whether they are DJs, VJs, visual artists, drags or performers. The response just proves that this space was very much needed.

We always say we aren’t inventing the wheel. The formula we use, a party with great music that also has a space to have sex, it’s quite simple and can be found in many places, the thing is it wasn’t happening here. And the fact that all of this is occurring in a conservative and catholic country like Colombia, is very groundbreaking and transgressive.

What can we see, hear and experience at your parties?

BULTO is all about freedom. We know that sounds simple and reductive but that’s what you can experience at our parties. It’s an open invitation so everyone can live their true selves in a safe space where consent is the main priority. We have used the term ‘fetishist’ as an adjective to describe our party because we believe it is easier for people to understand what to find if you categorize it that way, but in reality is much more than that, it’s a sex-positive space, where nudity and all fetishes are welcome. Really, we don’t judge!

The sound we are trying to push is mostly fast-paced techno, but we have started to see that our crowd is really open minded in terms of music, which gives us the opportunity (and responsibility) to start experimenting with different and ‘weirder’ sounds.

Tell us some DJs / artists you’re digging at the moment?

We are very fond of the fast techno sound coming from Copenhagen, specially Schacke and Sugar. We love how they are bringing back positive-energy to techno. We are also digging a lot other fast-paced and groovy techno producers like D.Dan, Stef Mendesidis, Rene Wise, Vladimir Dubyshkin and Newa, to name a few. In terms of DJs, we are currently obsessed with LSDXOXO, Juliana Huxtable and Akua.

What do you think will become of the music industry & the underground music scene post-pandemic?

We think right now the music industry is living a needed pause. There were many things wrong with our old ‘normality’ and this is maybe a very much needed cultural reset. This virus exposed how fragile the structures of this industry were, and it would be very sad if in the post-pandemic reality we return to the capitalist MO where the big players and corporations take advantage of the small, independent promoters.

We also think it’s time to get back to the roots, as much as we love hedonism and seeing parties as escapism we also believe they need to have a purpose, otherwise they are no more than senseless fun.

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BULTO INITIATIVES

Inside the parties we protect people’s privacy, so we have a strict no photo/video policy. Instead of pictures, we commission a different illustrator for every party who documents its best moments. (Check IG for reference: Instagram.com/bulto.co)

We launched a podcast series called ESPECTRO, because even when the sound we are pushing in our parties is mostly fast-paced techno, we believe there are tons of sonic universes from queer artists that need to be showcased. In this series we have featured local artists but also collaborated with selectors from queer collectives from México, Perú and Austria.

And last but not least, we are doing a series of short educational piece of contents on IG stories called Facts Are Facts, were we showcase the importance of queer and POC in the creation and development of the music we love so much.

BULTO
July 2020
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