In 2015, Liverpool was designated as a UNESCO Creative City of Music (UCCM) and since then I have kept a close eye on what that means to people working in the Creative Industries in the city. In 2017 Frutillar became the first UNESCO Creative City of Music in Chile, shortly followed in 2019 by the port city of Valparaiso and Concepcion in 2023.
I had only fleetingly heard of Frutillar because it was the area where the Chilean Strawberry, the ‘Fragaria Chiloensis’ originated. The port city of Valparaiso is famous for its incredible skyline and amazingly colourful murals that appear around every corner. This has created a network of Creative Cities in Chile and as the projects grow the network becomes stronger, allowing them to come together and raise funds and have a louder and more strategic voice to promote, develop and strengthen the music industries and programmes in the three regions.
With the incredible support of Alonso Farias, who has performed several times in Liverpool with his Chilean group, La Doctrina; I began a conversation with Valparaiso and Concepcion in December 2023 when I was invited to be part of a panel on the internalisation of Latin American music at the Rokodromo Music Festival in Valparaiso. Whilst there I also had a constructive meeting with the Coordinator of Valparaiso UCCM, and met their counterpart from Concepcion. In addition, I connected with several artists, producers and festival organisers from Chile and various Latin American countries.
I write this sitting in my father’s house in Barrio Yungay, a vibrant neighbourhood filled with culture in the centre of Santiago. After visiting Concepcion, and holding meetings with the Mayor, Cultural Director and the Coordinator of their UCCM, and then travelling to Frutillar to meet with their UCCM steering group, various councillors and their UCCM coordinator, I have a clearer picture of the priorities and different strategies each city is working to and how Luma Creations and Liverpool UCCM can collaborate and create meaningful partnerships.
Both Concepcion and Frutillar took me to several venues and music schools to show the variety of work they are doing to develop their music ecology. The three cities are keen to collaborate with Liverpool, both as a network and individually. I will return to Valparaiso before I leave Chile for another meeting with their Cultural Director and Mayor, where we will discuss concrete proposals and strategies to develop potential exchanges and other developmental programmes.
Liverpool is a historical music city, with a lot to share and it has a positive and lauded reputation as a music city here in Chile. It is the perfect time for Liverpool to strengthen its relationship with Chile through the UCCM programme, with Luma Creations acting as the vehicle for the development and strengthening of this relationship.
By Francisco Carrasco
