OK, So There Is Presently A State Department-Issued Travel Advisory For Mexico, Including MtyMx Site Monterrey

• Also, I forgot to mention: I don't see why anyone would be offended by Todd Patricks assertions- they don't sound naive to me at all. Everyone will have different perspectives of the situation, what is important is that it is coming from people who are actually THERE in the area and getting a feel for what is going on. If I would have known about this festival I definitely would have come! Good luck with the plans...

• If people are too scared to go to Mexico, then they really shouldn't go. The situation is definitely serious, but I do believe the threat has also been over-hyped in the U.S. media. I didn't know the situation had gotten bad in Monterrey, but this is coming from a person who hangs out in Tijuana every weekend. People are always shocked that I and many others go there, but the music/art scence is just incomparable to anything going on in San Diego. Mexico, unbeknownst to many is WAY hipper than given credit for. I just take proper precautions like in any big city. People need to be confident in their decisions to travel, if you are not, stay home.

• I know it isn't good for business to say Monterrey isn't safe.. But i rather don't put people in danger than to gain some bucks.

• Hi everyone. I, as a Monterrey Resident, really don't recommend even thinking about coming to this city. The Zetas and the Armed Forces have been involved in shootings all over the city. Yesterday we had (at least) 2 shootings one in the highway to Mcallen. The other outside of one of our universities (Tecnologico de Monterrey). Today I know about 3 (Valle Alto, San Jeronimo & Calzada del Valle). Of these three El Norte (our main newspaper) has nonly reported the one in San Jeronimo. http://www.elnorte.com/local/articulo/550/1099099/ The Zetas have been blocking our main roads with cars they're stealing from people, State Government has reported 31 of this blockings just today http://www.elnorte.com/local/articulo/550/1099028/ (it's in spanish but hey it's proof) and police is offering just 4 units to help this calm down. No one in this city is going out anymore, MtyMX should be cancelled.. at the very least posponed. I payed $400 pesos to watch al this bands play. I'll be watching none.

• Todd, speaking personally, I appreciate that response. You clearly have done your research, and I apologize for saying otherwise. When I asked my press contact re: the festival about any reactions to the newest travel warnings, I never got any response at all and I had to make a decision based on the information I was dealing with at the time. I know your festival is going to rock. I wish I could say I was going but I had to consider my own situation.

• and you think the U.S. government doesn't have financial interest in the situation?

• I trust the "U.S. government" over someone with a financial interest in the situation.

• The MtyMx Festival has paid close attention to the recent news reports and to U.S. government advisories regarding the current conditions at the Texas / Mexico border. In addition to reading wire reports, we have consulted daily with friends, family, and business contacts on the ground on both sides of the border. We have concluded that the MtyMx festival need not been affected in any way by last week's statements by the U.S. consulate. The recent travel advisory is alarmist, and it fits with the normal protocol of the U.S. State Department, which has a history of advising against travel to anywhere but the most sanitized international destinations. The U.S. consular advisory makes several ungrounded claims, including claims of road blocks on Mexican highways and gunmen impersonating policemen at the border. However, there are no reports in U.S. or Mexican news sources that gives evidence to these statements. In fact, business in Northern Mexico and at the border crossings seems to be proceeding very much as normal. Over 47 scheduled commercial bus departures leave Laredo, TX for Monterrey, Mexico every day, and none have been cancelled or curtailed in recent weeks. I crossed the border myself on Sunday evening, and witnessed the same long lines to cross the border that have always been there. My business partner Ricardo Rodriguez traveled the highway from Monterrey to the Laredo border and back on Saturday and found the drive to be as placid and boring as ever, with large number of other vehicles on the road travelling in both directions. There is no indication of any kind of crisis. The fact is, millions of people lead modern, peaceful, civilized lives everyday across the border in Northern Mexico. While Mexico is not perfect, and there are dangers and risks to all travel, we are hardly immune from gun violence or drug trafficking on our own side of the border. Similar drug related murders routinely happen in the U.S., yet receive no international press coverage. The recent violence in Northern Mexico is almost exclusively limited to infighting amongst members of the drug gangs themselves, with well-publicized but actually very limited collateral violence. Even with the alarming rise in killings, homicide rates remain lower in Monterrey than in any of the major cities in Texas. This is not random violence. There have been no recent reports of ordinary U.S. travelers being endangered in the drug violence. While there have been recorded deaths of drug gang members, and most recently a horrific murder of a U.S. consulate official and his wife, the "drug war" has not affected tourists. Consular officials are hardly bystanders, it's not hard to imagine the effect a contact in the U.S. consulate can have on illegal smuggling of drugs. The fact remains that the chances of the sensationalized skirmishes endangering an ordinary U.S. citizen crossing the border are about as statistically unlikely as it was that a visitor might die from the H1N1 "swine flu" virus travelling to Mexico about this time last year - and it's been just as exaggerated in the press. In recent days, our records show we've sold tickets to literally hundreds of well-heeled Mexican indie rock fans from Mexico City, Guadalajara, San Miguel Allende, and dozens of other Mexican cities. Some enterprising fans in Guadalajara and Mexico City have even chartered buses to get them and their friends to Monterrey. It's difficult to imagine this kind of dedication for central Mexicans to get to the North, if the North really were suffering the kind of dangerous "crisis" that the U.S. consulate describes. Our own buses on the Mexican side will be operated by Grupo Senda, which is the largest carrier in Mexico and features first class, air conditioned buses with Mexican drivers, Mexican license plates, and the confidence of decades of experience and professional infrastructure plying Northern Mexican routes. Senda buses travel this routing dozens of times each day, they clearly know how to operate and have more than a passing vested interest in maintaining safety for their drivers, their buses, and our passengers. The Autocinema Las Torres site will be secured by a 12 member private security detail, as well as with cooperation from local and state level police. Additionally. we will have a full service medical staff on hand at all times, and a resident ambulance. The Monterrey and Nuevo Leon governments are high level partners in the festival and will be working to ensure the safety and success of the event. This past Saturday a separate, but complimentary festival called Nrmal happened in Monterrey, and that one was organized entirely by Mexicans. Those organizers did not alter their festival plans, which also included buses for bands from Austin. The Nrmal festival had almost 2000 attendees, including a substantial U.S. and European contingent. The festival passed without any troubles, including a smoothly run bus shuttle from the States. Surely people in Mexico have reasonable sense of whether or not there is a "crisis" in the North. These Mexican fans and promoters have indicated with their feet and with their pesos that they aren't changing their travel plans, and they don't see reason for alarm. I trust their sense of the situation on the ground more than any statement by the U.S. government.

• THANKS ALOT ZACH YOU KILLED THE LAST DIY COUNTRY IN NORTH AMERICA

• As someone once-and no longer-planning to attend MtyMx, I would say I'm offended by Todd P's critique of the situation. As warning after warning has surfaced from both sides of the border, and ongoing media gag obliterates reportage from Mexico, he has not changed his stance one iota. I live in South Texas and border violence is no joke. He keeps repeating the same stale and old figures and it makes him seem out-of-the-loop. Also, white people with blonde hair and little Spanish skills do have other reasons to question their plans than do kids from Mexico City.

• "The murder rate in Monterrey in 2009 was 6.3 murders for every 100,000 people. The murder rate in New York was 6.3. The murder rate in Dallas was in the 13s. The murder rate in Houston was in the 11s. The murder rate in New Orleans was like 62 murders, so 10 times the rate of Monterrey," This is the idiotic logic that gets people murdered. I'm sure that drug cartel is very concerned with keeping the murder rate down at 6.3 ignorance is bliss.

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