04/03/2023
Behind the arrival of RBD in Medellín is Diomar García Montagut, a businessman from Cucuta who has staged the highest grossing shows in recent years in the city: concerts by J Balvin, Maluma, Daddy Yankee and Karol G. Those who know him say that His work is impeccable and he never takes on challenges that he cannot meet. Others say that he is very close to Mayor Daniel Quintero.
García spoke with EL COLOMBIANO openly about his life story, the organization of the concert of the Mexican group that has revolutionized the city and some of the controversies he has had during his career that is now 28 years old.
How long ago did you start in the world of concerts?
“Well that was like in 1995 when I started with that, because the concerts I had in a nightclub with a partner were already full. The first artists that I had named were Los Cuentos de la Cripta, La Factoría and I saw that this was a good business, that is, doing concerts when doing events was good business. I started to grow it”
How did you manage to get RBD to Medellín, because tours in the United States, Mexico and Brazil had initially been announced?
“At a concert in the stadium, a DJ that we present called Eagle DJ, plays Rebelde’s music and the whole stadium sings it for him. That is recorded and that goes to the networks and a noise starts there. From that, more than 700,000 signed up to the RBD page and as a result of that and, logically, of the good relationship of Karol G, who puts up a Twitter and says that they cannot leave Medellín out. We are presented with the opportunity for this to become a reality”.
And why were there four concerts in Medellín, something that did not happen in any city?
“That has several reasons why this happened. To sell the second concert you have to have sold the first and to sell the third you have to have sold the second. And to sell the fourth you would have to have sold the third, but you have to look at some statistics of how many people are online, how many are wanting to buy. And that’s why it happens.”
Is there a possibility of doing a fifth concert?
No, not that.
Why are RBD tickets so expensive?
“I was not in favor of the price. I made a budget with cheaper prices, but the manager let us know that he wanted a higher guarantee, a million dollar guarantee. When they put that on you and you see such a big bubble, you say, well, let’s take the risk and accept the guarantee and raise the prices for tickets and people.
Doesn’t how quickly the tickets for the concerts sold out have to do with security problems of the portal that was selling them? Are they inflated figures?
“When we go out to the first sale of the first date, we ask the page to have its servers open at maximum power. They never thought that more than 700,000 people would connect that day to want to buy 40,000 tickets. There were too many people who connected, in addition to the fact that they did not have the capacity of their servers open to 100%. In addition, when you have that welcome of people, there is a phenomenon that you want to go to the concert with nine other people to buy a box. So there is an error because the 9 get in and everything collapses.
Do you give tickets to the Medellín Mayor’s Office?
“We do give you some invitations because we have a protocol. In all events we invite the Ministry of Culture because it is part of the business. Al Inder, who is the one who actually lends us to the stage. We invite the Secretary of Government, who gives us the permits, we invite the National Police because they provide us with a service”.
And how many tickets do they give them?
“Among all those entities, somewhere between 50 and 80 ballots is what they have. The mayor’s office is given a box because you have to have the deference that you can’t sit him in the last row. So one accommodates them in the best way, but it is not a commitment that “he has to give me 5,000 tickets.” No never”.
Do you have any direct relationship with Mayor Quintero?
“I am not a politician. I analyze the things they do and there are some things that he has done that I like and others that I don’t. And yes, I’m friends with him, but no, not in business because I don’t have business. I’m a friend because of the concerts.”
Are you close to this Medellín administration?
“Some want to make me look like a political ally, as if I were getting involved in politics and I am that businessman of music and other businesses. I did concerts throughout Federico’s (Gutiérrez) mayor’s office and I was not a friend of Federico’s. I became friends with him because I showed him him one day and look, I do this and I do it well. From then on, they opened the doors for me without charging me. Besides, I am a friend of all the politicians, I am a friend of many people in the country”.
Have you made contracts with the Medellín Mayor’s Office?
“We do not have contracts with the mayor’s office. They are with some entities that work with the Mayor’s Office such as Plaza Mayor and Metroparques, where we present ourselves to the tenders. There is a project, we present ourselves and some give it to us, we win it ourselves and others are won by other people. In other words, Plaza Mayor has 20 suppliers but that is handled administratively by Óscar, my partner, and he is the one who found out about it. I do not like to contract with the State so that we are clear yes, that is, I do not have direct contracting, Diomar García does not contract with the Government”.
What happened to the stage for the Daddy Yankee concert, which you organized, and which was used a day later by the Medellín Mayor’s Office for one of your events?
“We do the concerts. A company called Punto Aparte comes to me and tells me that the Mayor’s Office wants to hold an event. I don’t give anything to anyone and even less to a mayor’s office, so I tell them that I rent them, but at cheaper prices, but I billed that company, if I’m not wrong, about $670 million. They paid me that, but they still owe me more than half.”
The launch of the RBD concerts coincided with the charges against the Secretary of Education. Was this situation accidental?
“I knew the day since a journalist asked me about it and I said that I don’t know what is charged, I don’t know who they are going to put in jail, I don’t know anything. As I tell you, I am apolitical.”
When the Attorney General’s Office suspends the mayor Daniel Quintero, some platforms, some lights, a sound are set up in the square of La Alpujarra. In La Alpujarra it was said that you had given that table. That’s true?
“No, I had nothing to do with it.”
What are your ties to Luis Enrique Pérez, alias “El Pulpo”, a noted drug trafficker from Cúcuta, assassinated in 2012?
“I met him through the stores, I had clothing stores and I trusted a lot of people. For that reason I became friends with him and made good friends. Yes, he was a well-known merchant in the city. Many times he was charged, investigated for crimes, never convicted. And I never had any business of this nature or of any kind with him”.
And the controversy in which they involved him with money laundering through a concert by Vicente Fernández in 2012?
“That was done by some businessmen from Bogotá with Total Entertainment. They were also investigated and would be imprisoned. Nothing happened. In addition, I have never had formal investigations, a Prosecutor’s Office has not called me to make an inquiry or to make a report, I don’t know what that is called. At some point I went to a Prosecutor’s Office because they wanted to extort me.”