Gilberto Gil and the June Festivals

Brazil is rich in popular festivals and every region has its own traditional celebrations. Some have, over time, ended up becoming important events across the whole country. One example are the June Festivals (Festas Juninas or Festas de São João), which celebrate the birth of St. John the Baptist...

 ...the prophet who, according to Christianity, saw the coming of the Messiah in Jesus Christ and baptized him. Bonfires also became part of the festivities in the Middle Ages. 

The tradition was brought to Brazil in the 19th century by immigrants from Portugal and other Christian countries in Europe, and the feast of St. John the Baptist on June 24 was soon absorbed into the customs of the indigenous and Afro-Brazilian populations. 

The festival's name changed from Festa Joanina (meaning for St. John) to Junina (meaning in June), and the celebrations became less Catholic and more multicultural as the festivities started to focus on popular folk dances and music, adapted from the European versions to suit Brazilian customs.

The first Portuguese to arrive in the country—in the so-called discovery of Brazil—landed in the northeastern state of Bahia in 1500, and their colony spread from there. Bahia was one of the regions most explored by Europeans... 

With this new civilization becoming established in the region, customs, cuisine, and festivals were also being brought from Europe and adapted to the local context.

The clothes worn at the June Festivals are called caipiras and are similar to the clothing worn by European peasants who settled in northeastern Brazil. There are usually stalls serving typical regional fare, such as pamonha (corn paste), canjica (sweet corn pudding), and pé de moleque (candied peanuts)

And bandeirinhas (bunting made of identical little flags cut from colored paper) are hung up as decorations. The bonfire is still the focal point of the festivities...

...with a traditional dance called a quadrilha performed around it. This involves a man and a woman imitating a wedding while other couples perform a dance with well-known steps.

Forró music is heard everywhere at festival time. And that is where Gilberto Gil comes in. 

Like every other typical Northeasterner, Gilberto Gil grew up counting the days until June in the cities where he lived. The festivals are an important tradition in Ituaçu and Salvador, and every Bahian family takes part in at least some of the celebrations. 

In the southeastern cities of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, where Gil lived after graduating and becoming a musician, the June Festivals are still held but on a smaller scale. They are not such an integral part of people's lives as they are in the Northeast. 

 Although Gil gradually stopped following the tradition in person, it has always remained close to his heart.

Gilberto and Flora married in 1981, but in 2000, the couple simulated their wedding at a festival they attended. This was the same period when Gil was focusing on traditional music genres.

In 1976, when Gil was going to be joining Caetano Veloso, Gal Costa, and Maria Bethânia on stage for their Doces Bárbaros show, Gil and Caetano cowrote the song São João Xangô Menino. 

Sung by Maria Bethânia in the show, the song sheds light on the meaning of the June Festival by combining a Christian saint, St. John the Baptist (São João) and an African orixá or deity, Xangô:

Gil and Caetano added an excerpt from a song by the Pernambucan musician Luiz Gonzaga in the middle of the song. Gonzaga had been the man responsible for making Northeastern forró music popular across the whole of Brazil while he was living in the Southeast in the 1940s. 

"Look at the sky, my love 
See how beautiful it is"

Sang Bethânia in a reference to Gonzaga's song Olha pro Céu (Look at the Sky).

Annotation of the music "Olha para o céu", written by Luiz Gonzaga

The approaching new millennium was pivotal for Gilberto Gil's nostalgia for the June Festivals. In 2000, while in the middle of various projects, he was invited to work on the soundtrack for the film Eu Tu Eles (Me You Them).

Written by Elena Soarez and directed by Andrucha Waddington, the feature-length film was based on a report in a Brazilian newspaper about a woman who lived with three husbands in a rural part of the northeastern state of Ceará.

The lead role was played by the Brazilian actress Regina Casé. The film owed its mood to the style of music heard at the June Festivals, and some Luiz Gonzaga classics were chosen for the soundtrack.

Of the 14 tracks recorded by Gilberto Gil, 6 were written by Gonzaga and 4 by Gil himself. The remaining 4 tracks included 3 forró classics by other songwriters and a new song, Esperando na Janela, by the Northeastern songwriters Targino Gondim, Manuca Almeida, and Raimundinho do Acordeon, which was widely played on the radio. 

The soundtrack was made into an album called As Canções de Eu, Tu, Eles, with an accompanying tour. Gil went on the road in November and December 2000 with a fairly traditional set list, indulging some of his nostalgia for the festivals in his native Northeast. In 2001, the album won the Latin Grammy for Brazilian Roots/Regional Album.

Gilberto Gil rediscovered himself in this return to his Northeastern roots. Excited by his experience the previous year, he released a live album of the show in 2001. Titled São João Vivo, the album had a fuller song list with more typical June Festival songs and danceable arrangements.

For the cover, Gil wore the traditional costume he had worn for his recent shows and for the performance at São Paulo's Via Funchal arena, where the album was recorded. This new work earned Gil a gold record and another Latin Grammy in 2002, again for Best Brazilian Roots/Regional Album.

While still touring, Gilberto Gil staged his Arraial de Gilberto Gil show in Rio de Janeiro in June 2001. It marked the beginning of filming for the documentary Viva São João!, which would be released in Brazil in June the following year. 

Directed by Andrucha Waddington, the documentary shows Gil on stage and joining Andrucha to visit rural communities in northeastern Brazil, where they both took part in the São João celebrations..

In the film, the filmmaker also examines the situation in the Sertão—a drought-hit region in the Northeast—and the hardships faced by the population as they struggle to live from farming in a region where there may be no rain for years on end.

After a few years working on other projects, nostalgia came calling again and, in 2010, Gilberto Gil decided to record another album dedicated to the popular saints' festivals. 

Fé na Festa was the artist's 50th album and yet again saw "the Bahian returning to his roots," as one critic put it at the time. The song Aprendi com o Rei is a clear tribute to his lifelong admiration for Luiz Gonzaga. 

In the Northeast, the Fé na Festa tour did the June Festival circuit, while stage performances were held in other Brazilian regions. The June Festival programs are among the best publicly funded events in Brazil and can attract thousands of people every year. 

Once again, the director Andrucha Waddington turned the show into a documentary and, in 2010, Gil would once again involve the public in a live version of the album, Fé na Festa: Ao Vivo.

Luiz Gonzaga is admired as the man who made forró music popular across Brazil

Gil managed to get close to his idol and played with him in the 1980s.

Gonzaga's accordionist, Dominguinhos, would also go on to play with Gil. 

Asa Branca is Luiz Gonzaga's most famous song.

Gil was invited to write the preface for Luiz's biography. The book, Vida do Viajante by Dominique Dreyfus, was published in 1996.