(Mexico, Rolling Stone) – In 2014, attendance had fallen sharply at Trópico, a Mexican music festival held in the resort city of Acapulco. The festival was only in its second year, and after 43 students disappeared in the nearby city of Iguala a few months prior, a large number of festivalgoers had the same thought: stay home.
But at one point during the three-day festival, organizer Pepe Bezaury recalled an atypical moment. The Rapture’s Luke Jenner, LCD Soundsystem’s Pat Mahoney and Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, among others, took to the stage before going silent. David Byrne then asked attendees to count to 43 in honor of the students, who the attorney general’s office says were turned over to cartel members by local police.
“From something really awful, something beautiful happened — that the 3,000 people that were there, we had a positive thought that we have to come together and work and move forward and try to end this impunity,” Bezaury tells Rolling Stone.
Mexico Today USA 