Transformations in participation, creative and political practices in the punk scene in Bogotá during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

This article studies the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through its different phases by looking at the case of Bogotá’s punk scene and analysing the activities of different collectives involved in the organization of music shows and other types of gatherings. We contribute to understanding those effects by answering the question of how the pandemic has transformed the creative, collaborative and political practices of its participants. We consider four periods of analysis: pre-pandemic, lockdown, new normal and post-peak reactivation. We use a mixed methodology comprising interviews with members of the collectives and the analysis of secondary data obtained from the social media posts made by these collectives. We use the latter to compare audience participation and reactions before, during and after the COVID-19 lockdown period with data from 2019, 2020 and 2021. A network analysis confirms the existence of a network of collectives identifiable as a central node of the punk scene. We find that remote activities were never considered more than a temporary and imperfect alternative from creative, political and economic perspectives. Economic impacts were severe and led to the closure of several collectives. Though a political discourse was not articulated as such by the scene, political thought and action aligned with social protests in Colombia and unified in opposition to market-oriented government policies in the cultural field. A slow return to in-person activities took place in the scene, leaving remote events behind, re-establishing live music at the centre of the scene and allowing for informal socialization among creators, producers and audiences. By looking at the three effects globally, we conclude that the punk scene did not recover completely and did not reach the level of organization it had before the pandemic.