Festas de São João 2019

Celebrating a Brazilian festival at El Barrio Latino Bar

Lucy (former Batucada tamborim player) owns El Barrio Latino Bar and was keen for us to do a small gig in June to celebrate the Brazilian festival Festas Juninas – also known as Festas de São João.

Keeping the volume down is a challenge in a small space, so we decided a mini-gig would work best, with 10-12 drummers instead of our usual 20-30. Our dancers came along and danced with the crowd, as there wasn’t space to do a dance performance. So – a bit of an experiment all round.

We were pleased we were able to pull it off at quite short notice, with the help of Lana from our extended Batfamily who directed the band. With only 10-12 drummers there was still plenty space for audience dancing. Which they did. Enthusiastically!