“The Maya painted their music and played their paintings”

I didn’t make that up. After three decades of travelling to the Yucatan Peninsula, Chiapas and Honduras to study the ancient Mayan culture, a friend of mine muttered these words. Helario is an American who was married to a Mayan girl and lived in their village for 13 years. Consequently, he is fluent in Yucatec Maya. He is also expert on Mayan sensibilities not found in the history books. He said this as we were driving to the Cross to the Center of the Earth also called the Cross of the Milky Way. It gave me a chill up my spine as the essence of what he said started to sink in. That’s a subject for another day.

Having been an entertainment producer for most of my professional life, those words really struck home. I just happened to have been producing four major shows for a Fortune 100 firm in Cancun over a three week span. Producing big name acts in Mexico is a challenge. It’s not the first time we have done it. We’ve produced several events in Cancun and Cabo San Lucas for large corporate events.

First, you have the logistics to consider when you are moving 15 musicians and crew from all over the U.S. to Cancun. Not all of them come and go at the same time. Further, they are carrying some of the band gear for the show that we cannot pick up in Cancun like guitars, bass, effects pedals and so on. Then, we’ve got to have all our ducks in a row to get the band gear and the musicians through immigration including the procurement of work permits for the band which in this case was the World Classic Rockers. www.wcr.com. WCR is the #1 all star band in the U.S. featuring past founders, key musicians and former lead singers from Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Toto, Steppenwolf, Journey and Boston. Now, remember we have 4 entries and exits from Cancun – all of which require special documentation.

Let’s move on to the production elements. Our firm is responsible for every element it takes to produce a show of this size and complexity from hiring subs to cover concert quality lighting, sound, more band gear, stage crews, stage, power, rigging, special effects, IMAG and so on. A prominent producer once told a younger me, “John, the details will kill you”. Well, they didn’t kill me but people have no idea of what it takes to realize a show of this size much less 4 of them in three weeks.

I can say with candor that these were the most successful series of events we have ever produced for the private, corporate sector. The band blitzed the audience with stunning musicianship, charisma with hit after hit for two solid hours, non stop. The show played like a public arena rock concert rather than a corporate event. The audience roared from the moment the act took the stage till they did their final encore. It was the finest example of matching the right artist to the audience which is, in and of itself, an art.

Now you see the tie between the Mayan story and these concerts. Art of the ancients meets art of the present, both forever intertwined for the joy of all.

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