Zaperoco

A Zaperoco night at Hackney Bridge in London, built around a hand-made picó sound system from the Netherlands and played entirely from vinyl, with DJs drawn from Colombia and the Caribbean coast.

Zaperoco brings the picó sound-system tradition of Colombia's Caribbean coast to Hackney Bridge, with a night centred on El Mágico Baobab, a sound system built in the Netherlands to traditional Colombian measurements and painted by the Colombian picó artist William Gutiérrez Peñaloza. The organisers describe it as a first London appearance for the system, which plays music from Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America.

The programme is vinyl only. Lady Avocado, a Colombian DJ and vinyl selector from Barranquilla now based in Barcelona, plays alongside Amancai, who comes from Cartagena and co-founded Zaperoco with Movimientos and FLAWA. Amancai's sets draw on Champeta, Cumbia, Salsa, Soukous, Zouk and Compas. A further guest DJ has been announced for the decks, to be named later.

Zaperoco takes its inspiration from the sound-system parties of Colombia's Caribbean coast, where DJs, selectors and record collectors have used gatherings to build community and to seek out records from far beyond Colombia. Hackney Bridge is a leisure venue in the Echo Building in East London.