Apparently, we are too small of an event and too small of a destination for big international sponsorships, although large corporations and large airlines do continue to service IZ and sell packages here (anyone have any contacts with West Jet, Alaska or United? How about Corona?) … and we seem to fall through a lot of the cracks for any kind of tourism or cultural funding. Even on the local level, we are over shadowed by larger, better funded events in IZ. In 2011, we were awarded a prestigious grant from the Mexican government (CONACULTA) for our 10 yr. anniversary (only because we had a sympathetic friend-of-a-friend in congress that supported the arts and championed our cause) but we never saw that money. After 3 years of paper pushing and filing and desperately trying to meet all of the federal requirements, not to mention a big stack out-of-pocket expenses for accountants, attorneys, and to travel to Acapulco and Mexico City to file – we no longer have any hope of seeing any of that money. Federal funding is not for amateurs. We couldn’t figure it out and we couldn’t afford to keep trying.

After 12 years of going down every possible road we could think up, and making it our all-consuming obsession, we have decided to stick with the only thing that has every worked before, the community of IZ itself. Fest fans have funded this event since 2004 and so far that’s the only way we’ve been able to make it happen. Fundraising is often a bunch of crying and begging … and we have done our share of that over the years. I have a lot of personal feelings about IZ and the state of things (after spending the greater part of my adult life and the past 16 years promoting tourism there, living there, having some of the best times of my life there), and I could go on. But in the end, it’s not world peace, it’s not curing cancer. We can’t even say we make a significant impact on tourism in our little town, as we bring in less than 5,000 people to Zih every year. It’s just a music festival. It’s supposed to be fun.

Zihuatanejo has given me so much over the years. For all of its frustrations, it is an environment where amazing things can happen. Not many of the things I have had the privilege to do in Zihuatanejo, would I have been able to do anywhere else. I started a magazine with $200 dollars, I started a music festival with $12,000 dollars – I have done some big fun things in Zihuatanejo, and I have made a lot of great friends to help me along the way.
I can’t change much about what’s going on in Z or across Mexico. I really have not much power anywhere at all, but for 10 days in March, it’s almost guaranteed: I can throw a great party and you are all most cordially invited. If you are thinking about coming, if you are thinking about buying a ticket, now is a good time. We are trying to raise $12,000 dollars – we have about $4,000, and we have about 1 week left to do it. If we don’t raise the money, I’m pretty sure we’ll figure it out anyway, we always have, but it’d be a lot more fun for everyone if we could just raise the money and get to work. We have a 10-day party to plan, we’ve got a lot to do.

So enough about me … (Blah. Blah. Blah.) … this one is for you: ZGuitarFest 2015: (Yep, we’re still here) Let’s throw a party on the beach!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/784772962/zguitarfest-2015-lets-throw-a-party-on-the-beach

We appreciate your help, it’s not possible without a lot of big-hearted helpful people, luckily we've got a good supply of those! - Catherine

The twelfth annual Zihuatanejo International Guitar Festival comes back to Zihuatanejo March 6-15, 2015, and we are trying to raise 12,000 dollars to buy airline tickets for our invited international artists. We have 12 days to do it, I think we can. Are you in?

ZIGF 2014 was a big success and we have been working hard these past six months, getting organized and announcing artists much sooner, and launching a bigger and better international promotion campaign. We just launched a beautiful new website overhaul, once again a tremendous undertaking and generous donation by Creative Director Isahrai Azaria. It`s a beautiful promotion tool with lots of information promoting our festival and the destination, including some very exciting hotel discounts for festival goers, so if you have not made your reservations yet check out our Accommodations Partners page for discounts of up to 45% off rack rates! You can also check out the artist archives, listen to some music, take a look at our history, our big ideas and our financial statements. If you´d like to get more involved with us, there are many ways you can. So go visit our website and click around, it makes us look very good indeed and helps further our mission of tourism, economic and cultural development, and fun (lots of FUN!) www.zihuafest.info

We are now in the midst of our 2015 Kickstarter fund raising campaign. We have 12 days to raise about 12,000 dollars and as usual, we need all the help we can get! So, Please help us spread the word and bring some new friends to Zih for a week of live music in paradise!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/784772962/zguitarfest-2015-lets-throw-a-party-on-the-beach

We are offering all Platinum Passes and the popular Founders Club memberships at 10% discounts through the campaign, as well as fun perks! We hope you´ll check it out and find a perk that works for you.

We have a wonderful festival planned for March with bigger and better offerings, including 22 international artists, expanded activities including workshops and extra days, as well as the usual offerings of beach concerts, gala events, and free to the public events. A sample schedule is posted on the website and the full schedule with artists will be posted soon.

I hope you all are as excited as I am about the new year and I hope to see you all in March in beautiful Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo for our 12th annual Zihuatanejo International Guitar Festival!

Thanks for all of your help and support! We´ve done this 11 times already, let`s do it again Zihuatanejo!

Catherine Krantz
ZIGF - Director, Zi Guitar Fest AC, President
www.zihuafest.info, www.facebook.com/zguitarfest, www.twitter.com/zguitarfest
info@zihuafest.info