Since it began, it has not stopped, except for 2020, forced by the pandemic. The truth is that the Rheumatic Diseases Concert celebrates its V edition this year thanks to the initiative of Carl Hernandez Roblesa resident of La Orotava who suffers from systemic sclerosis, a rare, rheumatic and autoimmune disease, who one day decided that music, one of her passions, could be a good excuse to make this type of ailment visible and help her research.
The first step was taken in 2017 and continues to this day. There are many people who have joined his work, completely disinterested, and who collaborate in organizing the festival, in which all the money that is collected from the tickets – its cost is ten euros – goes to the Association for the Aid from Research in Rheumatology (Reuninves) of the University Hospital of the Canary Islands (HUC) where Cari is treated.
His sole objective is to make this type of disease visible and investigated, “because there are more than 150 and they are the ones that cause the most work disability and most people are not aware,” he declares.
The concert will be held on Saturday, October 29 at 8:30 p.m. in the Teobaldo Power auditorium and will feature performances by Señor Olmos, Sonia Estepa, Jueves Band, Los Latinos, Boleros entre Amigos and Luis Almeida. As in previous editions, the artists participate for free, a collaboration that also helps reduce the costs of the event.
“It seems incredible what this concert has done. In addition to meeting friends from youth and childhood, I have met many supportive people. They say that the world is wrong and I am aware that it is, but there are also a number of very good people”, emphasizes the organizer.
Tickets can be purchased at the Antojos store, on Calle La Carrera, JB Jeans, at Tomás Calamita, at the Taoro tearoom (Casa Egón) or at the Pequeño Panda greengrocer, located on Calle Juan Cullen.
Cari Hernández maintains that in “every family it is very rare that there is not at least one symptom of rheumatic disease and that is why we must support each other and make them visible” and in his case, he has done so through music.
She is an example, not only because she has been the promoter of the concert but also because she always closes it singing with her husband, Alfonso García, or with one of the participating artists.
All of them, as well as others who want to contribute their grain of sand to Cari’s work, such as Kako Gorse, participate in the recording of an album and flash drive of the concert that is sold after the concert to raise funds.
Everything is valid to fight and achieve the objective of making diseases visible and getting them to investigate. Anything but surrender. That has never been an option for Cari.
