Saint John at the bonfire

When the city of Patos presented the official program for this year's Festa de São João, one of the best known in the region, the Associação dos Forrozeiros da Paraíba released a note of repudiation contesting the event's lineup of attractions and encouraging traditional forró.

At the beginning of the written statement, a question: “Has Paraíba stopped having forró artists?”

The main attractions on the Patos program were the country music duos Henrique and Juliano and Bruno and Marrone. Among the guests was Wesley Safadão from Ceará, one of the biggest names in electronic forró, a genre that emerged in Fortaleza in the 1990s, with the popularization of the band Mastruz com Leite.

In the Northeast, the forró considered authentic is that immortalized by Luiz Gonzaga, having as its basic elements the accordion, the zabumba and the triangle. Electronic forró, a subgenre of authentic forró, incorporated sound effects, keyboards and dancers.

“Nothing against any style, but we see a flood of sertanejo, funk, axé and even electronic music at the São João festivities,” says Alexandre Pé de Serra, singer and composer with a 25-year career and ten recorded albums, and president of the Associação dos Forrozeiros da Paraíba.

He says that the entity has been in dialogue with municipal Culture Secretaries about the appreciation of authentic forró: “Tourists from abroad come to the Northeast to see our culture, not the fad.”

In the Jiquiriçá Valley, the Forró Raiz da Bahia Movement was created this year. Its creator, Ednaldo Santana Forrozeiro, says that, over the last ten years, the presence of artists of the so-called forró pé de serra at the festivities has fallen significantly.

“This is a lack of cultural sensitivity on the part of contractors and public managers,” he says. Amargosa, in the Jiquiriçá Valley, is considered one of the most representative municipalities in Bahia of authentic forró.

A month before the start of the June festivities, the movement delivered a letter to the governor of Bahia, Jerônimo Rodrigues, warning about the situation and demanding that local artists be valued at the events. One of the requests was that they be prioritized by the State Development Superintendence (Sufotur) in the São João festivities.

Although he criticizes the presence of other genres to the detriment of traditional rhythms, Ednaldo does not turn his nose up at electronic forró bands. “We call it 'plastic forró'. It's not authentic forró, but it is forró.”

Researcher and music critic José Teles explains that forró, in the 1980s, created a new generation of forró dancers, such as Jorge de Altinho, Maciel Melo and Petrúcio Amorim. “Although they were very successful, these people remained stuck in the old market model”, he says.

It is worth noting here that the recording industry underwent a major transformation from the 1990s onwards – with CD piracy and, later, digital music – and, since then, concerts have become the main source of income for artists.

Teles recalls that, at that time, forró electronic entrepreneurs began to control stations and radio programs in the Northeast, to promote their cast. “The authentic forró singer was stuck selling the CD. It didn’t have the same structure as the forró electronic bands, which were winning over audiences,” he explains.

According to the researcher, the new generation thinks that the electronic forró played today is traditional forró, as this is generally restricted to the secondary stages of the big June festivals, such as those in Campina Grande and Caruaru.

In Pernambuco, there is a Bill that establishes a minimum percentage to be applied in the hiring of local artists

Defenders of authentic forró are unanimous in stating that the São João festivities are transforming into large festivals with different musical genres, in which traditions are being left aside – such as forró trios, cirandeiros and quadrilhas juninas.

Furthermore, municipalities prefer to attract crowds with nationally renowned artists, to the detriment of promoting local culture.

The Movement in Defense of Accordionists and Trios Pé de Serra of Pernambuco, created in 2024, pressures deputies of the Legislative Assembly of Pernambuco (Alepe) to defend the guarantee of space for them in public celebrations.

Since 2023, a Bill has been under consideration in the House of Representatives that regulates the allocation of public resources for the June festivities and establishes a minimum percentage to be applied in the hiring of “artists and musical groups that represent the popular culture of the forró genre”. The text of the Bill describes the “potential” of forró as a “generator of jobs and income for the local population”.

“At these parties, a guy from outside, who has nothing to do with the traditional culture, comes and brings together 1 million people. Unfortunately, most of them enjoy these shows,” says Ruy Sarinho, one of the leaders of this movement that also aims to raise awareness among forró dancers themselves. “One of the main goals of creating this group is to make these people aware that they won’t achieve anything alone.”

Manoel Felipe, who has been organizing accordion festivals in the interior of Pernambuco since the 1980s, says that Afogados da Ingazeira and São José do Egito, in the Sertão do Pajeú region, are examples of cities that still preserve their June festival traditions. “What we want is to maintain the essence,” he emphasizes.

The June festivals take place in all municipalities in the Northeast, starting in May and continuing until July. The loss of character of the festivities is not new, but the strengthening of the movements that seek to contain it seems to be. •

Published in issue no. 1368 of CartaCapital , on July 2, 2025.

This text appears in the printed edition of CartaCapital under the title 'São João na fogo'