How Chile’s Viña Del Mar Festival Navigated Controversy and a Nationwide Power Outage

This Tuesday (Feb. 25), at 3:15 p.m., the country of Chile lost power. With a seconds-long shudder that was felt from North to South, 80% of the country was left without electricity. WiFi service and cellphone service also fizzled, and, as it became clear electricity would not be restored any time soon, the president officially declared a state of emergency and ordered everyone to stay home after 10 p.m.

In the seaside resort city of Viña del Mar, site of Chile’s annual Viña del Mar International Song Festival, executive director Daniel Merino huddled with his co-producers from TV channel Mega Media to figure out what to do with that evening’s show, headlined by Sebastian Yatra and Colombian rockers Morat.

Finally, they announced that for only the second time in its 64-year history, the festival would cancel that evening’s show, rescheduling for Saturday (March 1).

The Viña fest, often referred to as the biggest and oldest Latin music festival in the world, takes place over six nights at La Quinta Vergara, a 15,000-seat venue, but is broadcast live (Billboard livestreamed it in the U.S.) and seen by millions. It’s Chile’s top-rated television show, and so far this year, has obtained peak ratings of over 40 points, which translates to some 4 million households or some 8 million people — nearly half the country — watching live, with more devouring online content. Performers have included Carlos Vives, Myriam Hernández, Marc Anthony, Bacilos, Ha*Ash, Incubus, The Cult, Duki and Eladio Carrión.

The festival is Chile’s pride and joy. It employs over 3,000 people nightly and has weathered many a storm. Merino, who is only 34 years old, has worked at the festival for the past decade, with the last six years as its executive director alongside entertainment director Alfredo Alonso, who is also his business partner in Bizarro, Chile’s largest concert promoter.

In 2020, the Viña fest survived months of historic, civil unrest in the country, with protesters surrounding La Quinta every night; in 2022 and 2023, it survived devastating fires in the surrounding areas; and earlier this week, it endured a widely criticized performance by Venezuelan comedian George Harris.

“These situations are so unexpected and so random, that there is no way to prepare for them,” says Merino, who nevertheless managed to steer things forward. Viña continued the following day and will close out tomorrow (March 1) with the rescheduled performance by Morat and Yatra with nary a hitch. For his aplomb under great pressure, Merino is Billboard’s Executive of the Week.

You began the week on a very stressful note. Beloved and popular Venezuelan comedian George Harris left the stage amid boos and his performance was criticized intensely. What happened and how did you handle this?

Every evening at Viña includes a standup comedy set. We chose George because he has a very interesting international career and fills venues. In fact, he sold out the Movistar Arena in Chile last year, selling 12,000 tickets. It felt like a slam dunk. But some 100 people in the audience started to scream and boo during his set, and George finally caught on to that. I can’t speak for him because what he sees and hears from the stage is different from what I see backstage. But he did tell me it was very difficult to focus on his routine amid the booing. Even fights broke out, and he decided to stop.

You had to deal with international headlines following the George Harris set. And then, you had to actually cancel a night. As a producer, how do you handle situations like these?

With time I’ve learned to take a deep breath. There are things I can control and things I can’t. I deal with what I can. The festival audience is known as “the monster” and they feel they own the show. But they also get very territorial if anyone criticizes it. Fortunately, the festival is so big and important that many people are working to push things along: The government, the police, production. When Viña takes place, the country literally comes to a standstill. On television, it dominates the news cycle. Viña airs on Mega, but every single network talks about Viña. The good thing is, there are big problems but many people working to solve them.

So what happened on Tuesday?

The power went out. We have generators at La Quinta Vergara. We have a system that doesn’t permit the power to ever go out. So, we could have produced the festival, television and all. But we didn’t because the city was on the verge of collapsing. Traffic lights weren’t working, and even if people were here, how would they return to their homes in the dark? Then they declared the state of emergency so we canceled the festival.

What did canceling imply?

First, it cost around $1 million. To begin, the cost of the staff, who came to work, they had to be paid. And the cost of the artists who were already here. Luckily, Morat and Yatra are very close to us, and they understood what was happening and were willing to stay until Saturday to do their show. I don’t know what I would’ve done if they hadn’t agreed to stay. We couldn’t make them part of another night, because four performances extends the evening too long and ratings drop.

What was the process of rescheduling?

Bizarro is responsible for the cost. We have insurance, but it doesn’t pay everything. Then, there was zero communication. We have an internal messaging system that goes to everybody’s email, so we messaged all the workers and the team leaders. But the hardest part was telling the 9,000 people who were already sitting inside the venue that they had to leave. Most understood, but some didn’t. And the second challenge was coordinating with the artist teams. We had to move them to Santiago [90 minutes away by car] because hotels here were all booked. For example, Eladio Carrión was arriving that day and was slated to stay in the room occupied by Yatra. We had to book new hotels in Santiago in an hour.

You’re a concert promoter. But this is not a show a “normal” promoter does, is it?

I always say there’s a reason no one else does it. This show is a license, and the last time they opened it for bids, we were the only ones who applied, despite this being such a wonderful event. There’s a big risk in terms of investment because it’s all or nothing. The business model is based on revenue coming from sponsors and tickets, but also in the ability to promote your content with huge ratings. It’s the most-viewed television event in Chile, and there’s also big interest in Latin America, where it’s seen on Disney Plus. We split both costs and revenue with the broadcast partner, in this case Mega, 50-50.

I was impressed with the staging this year.

We invested close to $4 million in new technology. We want the experience to improve the viewing experience. We brought everything from China in January. We put it all together here, and after we use it, it’s stored to be taken out again next year.  We have 1,000 square meters of LED screens, a mesh screen that provides depth. We had to buy new computer servers to display 64 million mega pixels. The technology we bought didn’t exist in Chile before, although it does exist in the U.S. But the difference is this festival stage is bigger than most festival stages around the world. This venue was specifically built for the Viña del Mar Festival.

We call it a festival, but as Adam Levine said — angrily — when Maroon 5 played here in 2020, it’s a television show.

It is a television show. Everything we do is part of a TV show. A camera follows the artist from the moment he enters the venue until he gets on stage.

What would you like artists to know about this festival?

I’d like artists to never lose interest in coming to Viña. Yatra, for example, has a very special show planned, with over 70 musicians onstage. Carín León is doing amazing things around the world and playing huge venues, and yet, he was willing to come perform at 1 a.m., following Carlos Vives, because he knows how important this is. The exposure the artist gets is huge because you can show yourself exactly as you are. They can connect with the audience in a very intimate and particular way because they have so much time onstage. At a regular TV show or award show, you have a few minutes and you can’t interact with the audience. Here, artists can speak to their fans. It’s a TV show, but it’s almost like a reality show. Nothing can be fully planned. Anything can happen.