Estéreo Picnic Festival
The Killers at Estéreo Picnic, 2013
Genre	Alternative rock, punk rock, reggae, electronica, hip hop
Frequency	Annually
Location(s)	Bogotá, Colombia
Years active	14
Inaugurated	24 April 2010 (2010-04-24)
Most recent	25 March 2022 (2022-03-25) – 27 March 2022 (2022-03-27)
Attendance	~63,000 (2016)
Website	www.festivalestereopicnic.com

Estéreo Picnic is a music festival that takes place annually in Bogotá, Colombia. It began in 2010 as a one-day festival showcasing mainly Colombian artists, but low turnout and financial losses during its first three years resulted in a strategic change of direction in 2013, becoming a multi-day festival on a bigger site and inviting major international bands to play alongside artists from Colombia and other Latin American countries. As a result, attendance increased markedly and Estéreo Picnic is now Colombia's biggest alternative music festival and one of the most important music festivals in South America. The musical style of the festival is similar to that of Lollapalooza and European festivals such as Glastonbury, focusing on alternative rock, indie music, punk rock, reggae, electronica and hip hop. Among the acts to have played at Estéreo Picnic since 2013 are American artists The Killers, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Pixies, Nine Inch Nails, Kings of Leon, Jack White, and Snoop Dogg, British groups Gorillaz, New Order, Foals, Kasabian, Mumford & Sons, and Florence and the Machine, and Australian bands Empire of the Sun and Tame Impala. The festival has also featured many of the major groups of the Latin American alternative music scene, including Calle 13, Babasónicos, Café Tacuba, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and Aterciopelados, as well as sets from high-profile DJs and dance acts such as Deadmau5, Tiësto, Skrillex, Major Lazer, and Calvin Harris.

History

The festival was the brainchild of four Colombian friends, Sergio Pabón, Santiago Vélez, Julián Martínez and Julio Correal, who came up with the idea of holding a festival of alternative music in Bogotá after discussing similar festivals that they had attended abroad. Recruiting three more acquaintances, Juan David Shool, Philippe Siegenthaler and Gabriel García, the seven founded a company, Sueño Estéreo (Stereo Dream), to put on the festival.^[1] The first edition of Estéreo Picnic was held on 24 April 2010 and featured mostly Colombian acts, headed by American rapper Matisyahu and Belgian dance act 2manydjs. However, the festival attracted fewer than 3000 people. In 2011 and 2012 the promoters more than doubled the number of acts appearing, but attendance was still low, with 4500 people turning up in 2011 and 6000 in 2012.^[2] The promoters made a loss of US$80,000 on the 2011 festival, and US$200,000 on the 2012 festival, with the festival only surviving by being subsidised by the money made on other concerts put on by the promoters.^[3]

Faced with continuing losses, the promoters took the decision that they needed a major headlining act to boost ticket sales. They booked the Killers, whose debut concert in Colombia in 2009 had attracted 10,000 people, as well as other major supporting acts including New Order and Café Tacuba, and reduced ticket prices by 25%. The organisers hoped that with this new strategy they would sell 18,000 tickets compared with the previous year's 6000: in the event the 2013 festival was attended by 23,324 people.^[2] Attendance has since increased every year: the 2015 festival had an attendance of 50,133^[1] and the 2016 edition was attended by an estimated 63,000 people.^[4]

Line-ups by year

2010

The first edition of the festival took place on 24 April 2010.^[5]

• Matisyahu
• 2manydjs
• Instituto Mexicano del Sonido
• Bomba Estéreo
• The Hall Effect
• Superlitio
• Palenke Soultribe
• Profetas
• Alerta
• La Makintouch
• Afrolatina
• Pizarro (LSCFJ)
• Radio Rebelde Soundsystem

2011

The 2011 edition of the festival took place on 9 April 2011.^[6]

2012

The 2012 edition of the festival took place on 30 March 2012.^[7]

2013

The 2013 edition of the festival took place on 5 and 7 April 2013. It was the first edition of the festival to take place over more than one day, and the first in its new venue of the Parque Deportivo, which has remained its home ever since.^[8]

2014

The 2014 edition of the festival took place from 3 to 5 April 2014.^[9][10]

2015

The 2015 edition of the festival took place over 12–14 March 2015. The festival was expanded to include a third stage, the Club Social Music Stage dedicated to DJs and dance music.^[11]

2016

The 2016 edition of the festival took place from 10 to 12 March 2016.^[12] It was preceded by an "inauguration party" in the evening of 9 March at the Bogotá music venue Armando Music Hall, featuring a live set by Eagles of Death Metal.^[13] The 2016 festival gained some unexpected international publicity after one of its invited artists, the American rapper Snoop Dogg, mistakenly tagged himself on his Instagram account as being in Bogata, Romania, instead of Bogotá.^[14][15]

2017

The 2017 edition of the festival took place from 23 to 25 March 2017.^[16]

2018

The 2018 edition of the festival has been confirmed to take place from 23 to 25 March 2018.^[17][18][19]

2019

The 2019 edition of the festival took place from 5 to 7 April 2019.^[20][21]