At eighty years old, the bonillera María Matamoros strolls through her Albacete village of El Bonillo with her octogenarian friends and a walker, surrounded by about five thousand young punk and rock enthusiasts, hundreds of Quechua tents stacked on the terraces, and the live music of El Drogas as the soundtrack.
«We’ve come to enjoy the atmosphere and listen to the orchestras,» explains Matamoros, referring to the fifteen groups, DJs, and raves that have flooded the Manchego village of just 2,900 people, doubling its population over the weekend thanks to the 16th edition of the music and circus festival ‘La Nación Alterna’, which carries the iconic slogan of the village ‘El Bonillo is a Nation’.
What started in 2008 as a small musical event promoted by the local circus association Rolling Cyrcus, attracting only a hundred people, has now become one of the most important festivals in La Mancha.
It was a time of economic crisis, and the town councils were reluctant to invest their tight budgets in alternative music.
«Today we are the envy of the area, all the towns want to have a great event like this. Every euro the Town Hall invests in the festival doubles back into the town,» says Manuel Núñez, from the company Berrinche, promoter of the Alterna, inside the Town’s Cultural Center, transformed during the festival into dressing rooms for the musicians.
According to Núñez, the keys to the festival’s success lie in the «quality» and «care of the public» achieved through close collaboration with the local Government team, providing toilets, the municipal pool, free camping, and plenty of shade to counteract the strength of the sun on the plains of La Mancha.
«The Alterna is not a massive festival,» explains Núñez, «we could make it bigger, but we prefer to be consistent and maintain a format that fits what the town can sustain.»
With this, they have managed to create a calm and family-friendly atmosphere, where parents and children, ravers and elderly residents come together in the streets to enjoy the circus performances in the morning or the live music that travels through the village in the evening.
María Matamoros asserts that the festival breathes life into El Bonillo. «This is wonderful. The youth gather, the shops sell more than ever, and there are very curious people in the streets,» says the bonillera with a smile as she watches a group of young people with mohawks and dressed as traditional Manchegan women pass by.
«I hope some of them stay to live here, as we need more people,» the elderly woman suggests. «This serves to let outsiders know about El Bonillo, which is a nation,» Matamoros proclaims.
This slogan appeared decades ago painted on a wall in the village.
The joke turned into a symbol of the municipality over the years, leading to the minting of a coin and the phrase becoming a brand for local products or the festival itself.
For the Alterna, tickets are not purchased, they are acquired as «passports.»
«The slogan is intrinsic to the festival,» comments Núñez, who, beyond a branding hook, considers ‘La Nación’ as the small community that emerges within the village and during the days of the music event.
«IDEAL» FOR CHILDREN
Miriam Calero, a 42-year-old civil servant and resident of Valencia, has been coming to El Bonillo since 2009. Her two children, aged 10 and 8, have been following her in this family tradition since they were born.
«The festival is also ideal for children,» declares Calero.
«There are many activities designed for kids like juggling, craft workshops, and ball games,» lists this mother as her children, armed with water pistols, start a shootout with a group of passersby.
For the singer of the reggae group Iseo&Dodosound, Leire Villanueva, this edition of the Alterna is her first time performing in El Bonillo and stepping into ‘La Nación’.
«When we were offered to perform, I didn’t know the festival or the village yet, but my group’s technicians did, and I was surprised by the good reputation it had,» confesses the Navarrese singer, who has traveled with her band from Iruña to perform this Saturday.
«In Castilla-La Mancha, there is a lot of musical and rock scene, and I find it very interesting that there is a focus on this type of cultural activities and alternative festivals in smaller towns, not just in big cities,» reflects the artist, who shares the lineup with bands like Riot Propaganda, Envidia Kotxina, or Non Servium.
The Alterna mainly attracts audiences from Madrid and Valencia, as well as La Mancha, but its fame has already reached Galicia, Navarra, or Zaragoza, where Miguel Ledesma, a wind technician and young festival-goer, strolls down Don Quijote street with a bottle of calimocho and a horse mask on his head.
«I used to come to Viñarock, but with how overcrowded it is and now that it has been bought by an Israeli investment fund, I decided to look for another festival with my friends,» he mentions regarding the controversy surrounding the company KKR, owner of various music festivals in Spain, whose relationship with the Gaza occupation has sparked criticisms and musician cancellations at their events.
«The music here is just as good, and it’s more comfortable,» Ledesma asserts.
«THERE’S EVERYTHING»
Álvaro Hernández, a 34-year-old Albacete native, comes out of the bathrooms surprised by their condition.
«Usually, the toilets are a nightmare at festivals, but here you have everything. There are showers, water, a pool, you can camp without problems, you can park right next to the festival, it’s all advantages,» states Hernández, convinced that he will return next year to an event that has achieved an 80% loyalty from its audience, according to the promoter’s data.
For now, in order to attract once again the wave of youth and music that has become a tradition in the «nation» of El Bonillo, the Alterna has already announced the sale of tickets for next year starting Wednesday, July 9, with confirmed acts like Biznaga, Dubioza Kolektiv, and La Élite.