Selling Chickens: Samacá Band Seeks Funds for Netherlands Music World Cup

The Samacá Symphonic Band faces a significant financial hurdle in its quest to represent Colombia at the World Music Contest in the Netherlands. The group requires over 800 million pesos for the trip, a sum they have been trying to raise through various activities for the past year. Families of the young musicians are actively involved in fundraising, with some, like farmer Juan Francisco Rodríguez, resorting to raffling their own livestock and selling traditional foods to contribute. Rodríguez is raffling a pig and a goat, animals he raised with his children, to help fund his daughter Liseth, 21, and son Andrés Felipe, 19, who play the flute and percussion, respectively. The band, comprising 64 children and young people, mostly from farming and working-class backgrounds in Samacá, Boyacá, has a year-long history of fundraising efforts. Despite the challenges, the parents express pride in their children's musical achievements, which have already allowed them to travel within Colombia and to Mexico and Spain. The band's journey to the Netherlands, if successful, would be a significant milestone, especially for a group whose members come from modest economic backgrounds and whose parents may not have had similar opportunities.

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Some kind-hearted people have helped us, but raising money is very difficult, so we are doing everything possible, like raffling my animals through what we call the 'tapazo,' meaning with the number that comes out under the cap of each beer, to help see if we can reach the funds that my daughter Liseth, 21, and my son Andrés Felipe, 19, need.