When one from the Baja or Alta (SoCal) California thinks of Rosarito it's inevitable that a horrible amount of images come to mind. Yes, there are beautiful beaches and margaritas in the sun but it's almost impossible to forget two words associated with the beach town, SPRING BREAK.

Named by Playboy Mag as one of the ''hottest'' spring break spots in the world over a decade ago, Rosarito has since then been deserted by American tourists, spring break is not coming back, nor are tourists, MTV, Eminem( played a MTV show in Rosarito way back when), Playboy Mag or the gallons and gallons of vomit and nudity left behind by thousands of Southern California spring breakers. In fact, the once famous naked bungee jump has since closed its doors and to be quite honest, I'm perfectly OK with that, seems like it would be a huge health and hygienic concern as drunken bros tend to shit their pants when having too much fun.

The Tijuana DIY music festival known as ALL MY FRIENDS has decided to throw its fifth edition at a beautiful beach and hotel at the southern edge of Rosarito. AMF, known for its good musical taste and DIY spirit has caught the attention of hipster media powerhouses like Pitchfork and Vice, not to mention Coachella Festival organizers Golden Voice amongst many others. The decision to move the festival from November in Tijuana to summer time in Rosarito is both genius and very risky. The abandoned ghost like beach town is not a young hipster hot spot, it's most certainly not full of tourists and has NEVER had this kind of well crafted, forward thinking, modern age progressive music festival.

It may be that the free thinking, taking back our streets TJ crowd and entrepreneurs might want to do the same for Rosarito. If this is the start, it truly may be an exciting time for our sandy neighbor to the south.

Argenis Garcia, AMF's creator asked why move AMF to Rosarito?

…"because Rosarito is kinda a neutral, its not as far as Ensenada or Tijuana if you're coming from the port, people from Mexicali hate Tijuana's traffic, Tecate is pretty close too, so we plan that in a couple years this would turn into a state festival and Rosarito seems the perfect spot".

AMFV will feature, of course, something known as la Cocina Central, a food garden like no other in the Baja music scene or So Cal music fest scene. The festival is widely known for promoting up and coming musicians and will do the same for Baja Chefs in a now very well known Baja Gastro scene. I'm not sure how it will go down, will there be a Iron Chef Tijuana during this music fest? The food options will be insane, friendly priced and some of my favorite TJ chefs will be there. Mario Peralta from Klan D, Martin from Verde y Crema and Humberto from La Caza Club just to name a few will be participating in Cocina Central. AMF is jumping on the Baja Gastro bandwagon and they should, it is something remarkable, something we should all be proud of and, best of all, so fucking tasty.

Musically, the festival offers 12 hours of music on three stages or areas, these areas will be the Beach side stage, The Garden stage and the Pool stage.

Twenty plus artists/bands from at least 4 different countries that include USA, Mexico, Puerto Rico and Costa Rica will play all day and night. There is a music Hacklab, a sort of interactive music free for all project that seeks to find new ways of creation and expression. One of my very favorite Hip hop acts is playing, Fuete Billete from Puerto Rico, Las Robertas from Costa Rica and Nortec's very own Bostich w his Point Loma Project grace the fest as well. The feeling is that the fest is being marketed as a beach party experience where you can learn about new bands, enjoy some of the best Baja has to offer musically, geographically and gastronomically, the most bad ass AMF fest to date, not fucking bad, not fucking bad at all. AMF Fest V is a far cry from the Rosarito of wet T shirt contest winners getting a free adulterated tequila bottle, thankfully.

Info+Tickets+Hotels+Transportation at their official website or Facebook.

For more news about Tijuana and San Diego visit SanDiegoRed.com

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