Festival Ometeotl is a traditional Mexican festival that is known about across Mexico but less so in the wider world. I asked a healer from Wahaka how she had come to know about the festival and her response was simply 'because I'm Mexican'. In truth, I only found out about it from a Mexican called Jorge, so maybe I'm breaking some code by sharing this.
I had met Jorge the week before at the birthday party of my Spanish teacher. He's tall, beautiful, athletic and exactly as you would expect from a Mexican man: so laid back that he is horizontal (he arrived at the festival with nothing but a tent, a pair of shorts and a spare t-shirt) and is constantly on the look out for ways to help or to provide for your needs. As a European girl it's a little difficult for me to get used to.
We had been sat in a bookshop cafe, overlooking a busy street in Mexico City, listening to the beeps of the horns and the occasional crash of cars directly below us. Jorge had seen the festival posted on Facebook and I had been hungrily searching Resident Adviser the night before in order to find some decent dance spots in the city. It seemed to be fate. 24 hours later we had a 'tour' booked and 72 hours later we were on our way to the festival hosted at
Hacienda La Luna in Tetecala Morelos.
About this 'tour'.... it was due to leave Mexico City at 8pm. We were in Mexico so we were never going to leave earlier than 9pm and with google maps saying it was a 2.5 hour drive, I admired Jorge's Mexican optimism that we would be there by 9.30pm. We were due to catch the bus at a dark, dirty and confusing metro station known as Cuatro Caminos. The area was chaotic with hundreds of buses ploughing past with no regard for pedestrians. I was grateful to be with a tall well-built Mexican who at least looked like he knew where he was going. We found a lone boy called Zac, clutching a tent and looking as lost as we were. Zac seemed painfully shy, although his actions seemed to bely his personality. He had heard about the festival the year before and decided to take a earn enough money to come on his own to see what it was all about. With the three of us standing there with tents, it wasn't long before there were about 30 of us all stood in the same spot. The phrase 'monkey see, monkey do' sprung to mind as I realised that we were simply following poor Zac.
By some miracle, we found the bus and finally got going just after 10pm. With everyone casually smoking weed on the bus, it shouldn't have come as a surprise that our top speed was about 50km/h or that we would be overtaken by everyone on the motorway (buses, tractors and lorries). By some miracle, we arrived as early as 3am! After an hour or two of queueing to enter the festival, we were finally given our wrist bands.
There are strict rules about the food that you can take in. I carry a card explaining that I do not eat gluten, so after some negotiation I was allowed to take in some of my pre-prepared food in tupperwear, but not the snack bars. It's worth checking in advance with them if you want to take food in as the rules weren't obvious to me in advance or even what they were on the gate.
By 5am we had found a spot in the sea of tents, made friends with our neighbors, including a friendly chap called Ernesto who helpfully showed us how to set the tents up.... The main camping field seemed to be for newbies like us, and then secret secluded spots in the trees for people that had been there before.... It became apparently the next day that to find a spot under the huge shade covers or in the trees was golden as it helped to avoid turning your tent into an oven.
The festival itself really came to life as Saturday progressed. Around 11am the tribal dancing began. The Concheras dance began around a tepee and a fire with delicious, oaky scents being wafted over the feathered headdresses of the indigenous dancers as deep drumming and flutes provided music to dance to. The deep satisfying jangle of the ankle bells rang through the air as the dancers stomped their feet in time to the music as a form of protest, not against an institution or the conquistadores, but against ignorance in general. The dancers then started to move away from the secluded area, forming a procession of hundreds of people making their way across the festival fields to the main stage.
Like most festivals, there was an eclectic mix of people from the oober-hippie with long dreads who has never been near a deodorant to the oober-raver who really can't do anything apart from smile and run their hands over their own bodies in ecstasy. Then there is everyone in the middle, and really, anything goes.
There was art, yoga, dancing, face painting, random chatting, eating, drinking and all sorts. There is no chance to get bored as there is so much to do.... they even had a little handicraft market where a young man had casually plugged in a sewing machine so that he could fix his drum case. I was offered everything from Mezcal, to weed, to acid but there is no attitude or issue with saying no. One girl was surprised that I turned down her acid offer, but she said I was still her best friend so it didn't seem to damage our relationship.
What to take to Festival Ometeotl:
- Tent shade cover like
this
- A water bottle - water is provided from taps
- Some soap - showers are available and believe me, you'll want one!
- Toilet paper
- A hat or scarf for sun protection
- Sun cream - there is shade to dance under but for English skin like mine, you'll still need factor 50!
- Mossie repellant
- Anti-histamine cream
- Mat to sleep on and sleeping bag to sleep in (it gets cold in the night)
- Good shoes - the ground is mostly long, thick grass which is easy to trip over on, especially with flip flops
- A torch
- Swimmers - whilst there is nowhere to swim, you might want these for the showers if you aren't brave enough to stand naked next to the main path
- Solar recharger or battery recharger for phones
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| The stage at night |
