‘Come 2 Chile’: How to get an artist to actually come to Chile.

*Disclaimer: this article doesn’t only apply for Chile, but can be used as a piece of advice for fans worldwide looking to extend their scene and have their favourite artists booked.*

Chile, we love you and your endless supply of enthusiasm, but there are some things that we have to set straight.

With the hard dance scene booming in South America, hot-spot Chile has been blessed with many events including The Sound Of Q-Dance Chile, Mysteryland Chile, the upcoming Defqon.1 Chile and also many local parties. Not only Q-Dance, but a lot of artists have a soft spot for Chile, including Wildstylez who dedicated his track “Santiago” to the beautiful capital city and also MC Villain who is a front-man for the scene there. Apart from Europe and Australia, Chile is next in line when it comes to a booming scene with thousands of dedicated fans and guess what? The scene is only continuing to grow there!

With the first ever Defqon.1 to be held in Santiago in December, this country can expect big things in coming years and may even experience a similar growth as the Australian hard dance scene with nightclubs, local and large-scale event organisations popping up and dedicating their time to bringing the best artists to the country.

On a wider spectrum, for many years, fellow Chilean hardstyle fanatics have taken their eagerness to social media, sharing their love for the harder styles in a well, slightly unusual manner as their one golden line “Come to Chile” has become a key element to the online community.
A lot of Chileans may be thinking “but I’m just asking my favourite artist to come to Chile, why is everybody making fun of me?”

First of all, let’s just lay it down that you are a highly enthusiastic bunch and because of your eagerness there have been many possibilities in Chile when it comes to new events and concepts. However, saying that, it’s a fact that writing comments on various artists’ pages will probably not have them booked in your country, this requires a different kind of process.
Of course, sharing your abundant love for hard dance music online is totally cool and sharing the love between the Chilean and South American community can help bring forward new local concepts and event organisations, however personally asking an artist repetitively to “come to Chile” will probably only lead to disappointment (and a few people having a laugh).

Let’s give you an example. If 200 people from Chile went onto Noisecontrollers Facebook page and send him comments saying “Come to Chile!” I’m sure that Noisecontrollers would be very humbled by his dedicated fan-base in South America, however there’s absolutely nothing that he can do as there is a booking agency and the event organisation that is responsible for whether he comes to Chile or not. A lot of fans may think that things work this way and that requesting an artist personally will directly correlate with a booking, but there is a lot more behind it than meets the eye.

To get specific artists coming to any country, first of all, there needs to be event organisers who can create an event and book artists. Secondly, the fans must come together and have an impact on this organisation and if there are enough requests to the organisation for a certain artist and assurance that their event will be a success, then they will probably consider booking them. Thirdly, the event organisation must contact the artists’ booking agency to find out whether they are available to take this request and whether it aligns with their current schedule.

So, Chile, what can YOU do?
On a local scale, you can support the scene by spreading the word, thus drawing in a whole new cohort of hard dance fans. Tell all of your friends about hard dance music, play it repetitively until they love it and most importantly, take them to an event so that they can see for themselves! By drawing new listeners into the scene, you are generating new growth and opportunities and with growth come a higher demand for more event organisations and international artists.

Another thing that you can do as locals is support your local organisations such as club nights dedicated to hard dance music, small festivals and indoor events. The more sold-out these small events are, the more likely they are to expand and book international artists. Finally, getting in touch with local organisations is important; if you offer them some recommendations of great artists to book and ways to improve their events, then you’ll sure-fire be on your way to a bigger and better scene!

Let’s unite and spread the word!

Chilean Hard Dance community: Bassmusic.cl