Machamba is now five: Luís Masquete, Leonardo Patrício, Anita Marreiros, Luna Barreto and Nadine Saize. Starting at the beginning, the promoter begins with Luís, a native of Barcelos, who, after a career as a programmer in Aveiro, moved to Porto. While in Aveiro he started programming a little unintentionally and very suddenly, in Porto he spent about a year or two just observing what the new collectives were doing and figuring out what he could add. And that addition was defined, according to him, “to see more diversity, to have more projects that took the folklore of their regions and transported it to the present - or rather, to the future”.

Decoding the promoter's name is also a way of getting to the heart of it. With Mozambican ancestry, the country where he spent some of his childhood, “machamba” is one of the few words from everyday life in Maputo that Luís brought with him — meaning “garden or backyard of a house”, and he saw this word as a good metaphor for what he wanted to do: “Just as there is more connection in Portugal to the culture of Angola and Cape Verde than to the culture of Mozambique, which is at the back of the continent from an Atlantic perspective, I also wanted to explore what is 'at the back' of the music scene; projects that sometimes find it difficult to access the circuit.” In short, “it would be very easy to say that we saw an opportunity to give the city a programmatic agenda, but in reality we just want to bring artists and bands that we like.”

This agenda quickly became more than personal as new members joined the promoter, and in a very organic way: “Even before I thought I would ever move to or program in Porto, Luna had already introduced me to one of the first DJs I worked with, and recommended the first booking experience in the dimension of traditional Cape Verdean music, with Silvino Branca.” Leonardo, a colleague from his programming days in Aveiro in the communications department, curated one of the promoter's first concerts, with Kito Winse. Anita Marreiros is among the roster of projects represented by Machamba, such as DJ Marafada. Finally, Nadine was manager of Hetta, a band for whom Machamba booked. It could be said that the team was formed not through recruitment, but through affinity.

This affinity is something that is also present in Machamba's DNA, and they also assume a certain “curiosity” about mixing waters. Although they recognize that this is not unique to the city of Porto, they see the small pockets of alternative culture as worlds that are too isolated - hence the concept of the Chuinga parties. Another word remembered from Mozambique, “chuinga” was an adaptation of “chewing gum”, and these parties aim to “chew” in a single day performances from projects (and audiences) that rarely cross paths. Leonardo talks about how “bringing these performances together in one space forces audiences to interact” and be exposed to something they're not used to, while Anita mentions how the space where the parties take place, AL859, invites this, “since there are several rooms without any kind of division between them”.

The unlikely intersections of soundscapes and spaces are followed by the tropical effervescence of Venga Venga at Socorro and the esotericism of Filipe Sambado's latest album at Passos Manuel. Before this last concert, there will be time to record a live podcast at Maus Hábitos. This one, entitled “How do they do it?” will take the same curiosity that leads Machamba to promote crossings between audiences and spaces and apply it to a sadly necessary question. During her first performance as Marafada, and within the “protective shield” of the Porto environment, surrounded by friends, Marafada was the target of “more unpleasant situations, although not unexpected”. Marafada says that “we began to question to what extent this is normalized, or to what extent these are my concerns, or on the contrary, concerns shared by other female DJs in clubbing in Porto and around the world”. This conversation, moderated by Maria Eduarda, brings together veteran live DJs like Noia and MVRIA with Marafada herself, “clearly a beginner in this field”, she says.

Having started about a year ago, Machamba is reluctant to take stock or even draw up plans for the future. The collective only knows that it will continue to take care of its garden. And if, in addition to what they intend to sow, new grafts that cross different species can be made, so much the better.