Tomas Restrepo Garces: Early Career Promoter Fund
To produce Ritmo y Esencia, a celebration of Latinx music artistry: blending rhythm, roots, and collective spirit in a unique showcase of London’s diasporic talent.
Mugre is a community-led music and cultural platform amplifying the voices of Latinx artists in the UK. Born from lived experience of migration, exclusion and underrepresentation, it exists to challenge the persistent invisibility of Latin Americans in Britain. It draws on the idea of the ‘leading zero’, a community that is present and contributing, yet statistically and culturally overlooked.
Through music and other cultural expressions, Mugre creates spaces where artists can speak honestly about identity, displacement, struggle and resilience. These spaces are both rooted in creative and community with the aim of building collective visibility towards recognition in the 2031 UK Census, while asserting the value of Latinx presence in public and cultural life.
With support from PRS Foundation, Mugre will deliver a series of live music events in London showcasing Latinx artists from across the diaspora. The programme will platform bold, original voices and genre-defying work, spanning from experimental and electronic sounds to folk-rooted sonorities, and hybrid musical forms that reflect the richness of contemporary Latinx expression.
Each event will be recorded and shared online, extending its reach beyond the room and connecting with wider audiences through digital platforms. This approach not only supports artists creatively and financially but also builds a growing digital archive of Latinx cultural presence in the UK.
Mugre is founded by Tomás Restrepo Garcés, a Colombian musician and cultural organiser based in London since 2020. Originally from Medellín, Tomás developed his practice as a bass player and cultural promoter, co-founding projects including Calavera y la Popular Independiente and SAAIL.
After moving to the UK on a Start-up visa to establish a touring platform for Latinx artists, a project disrupted by COVID-19, his experience of precarity and invisibility directly shaped the platform. Today, Mugre encourages artists to be visible, disruptive and influential cultural agents.