1979: Primera Guerra

The press of those days announced it as “Concierto de Orquestas y Minitecas en El Poliedro,” and the show's full name was “Concierto juvenil de Orquestas y Guerra de Minitecas”: the word “guerra” was there from the start. The estimated running time was about five hours and general admission cost twenty bolívares.

The prizes were published in advance: three thousand bolívares for first place, two thousand for second and one thousand for third. The announced panel was billed as the jury “de los bailes” (of the dances), and on it were the two hosts of the night, Enrique Hoffman and Musiuito himself.

Who organized it

Behind the country's first great miniteca show there was no company and no radio station: there was a committee of graduating students who needed to pay for their graduation. It was called the Comité Pro-Graduación del Colegio San Agustín, it operated from the premises on Av. “E” in El Pinar, El Paraíso, and its president was William Núñez Alarcón, the student the press of the period singled out as the main collaborator and who has his own entry in this Archive's “Hidden Figures.”

It was that committee that summoned the minitecas to a meeting before the event, that auditioned them and that drew up the rules. It was made up of six students:

• · William Núñez Alarcón — President of the Comité Pro-Graduación
• · José Álvarez Castro — Department of Culture
• · Enrique Herrera Silla
• · Juan Policastro
• · Alejandro Casas T.
• · David Millán

The rules of the game

Unlike the later sound clashes, here it was the school committee that chose the competitors, by audition, and that drew up the rules. That set of regulations is one of the most revealing documents of the movement, because it describes exactly what counted as merit in 1979:

• · No choreography or dance routine of one's own could be presented.
• · The music was left to the criterion of the discjockey (now DJ), who could repeat songs if he thought it necessary.
• · The running order was drawn by lot among all the participants on the day of the show itself.
• · The speakers and the rest of the connections were handled by Audiorama: all of them played through the same central system.
• · Thirty minutes of performance per miniteca, with two of grace; going over meant disqualification.
• · The mixes could be done on turntables or on tape recorders — but bringing them prepared in advance meant disqualification.
• · Only three members per crew could go up on stage.
• · No member could speak to the judges during the three hours beforehand or in the course of the show.
• · Judges' scale out of 100 points: 25% equipment, 70% personal presentation, work plan, music and mixes, and 5% responsibility.
• · Whichever came out as “the best among the best” had to perform for a further stretch, now outside the competition.

The running order

The order of performance was drawn by lot, and each miniteca received its own in writing: a numbered card, in the committee president's own hand, with a single line. “Arrancas con el 1er lugar. Suerte…” (You start in the 1st slot. Good luck…).

“I never patented the idea”

Years later, Marco Antonio “Musiuito” Lacavalerie told where all of it came from: the idea of the great show at the Poliedro was his, together with William, the student who led the committee. “I never patented the idea or anything like it,” he says; many announcers took it up and went on presenting shows like that, at the Poliedro and in other venues, without any of it being credited to him.

From his account come two memories that give the scale of what they staged. One is the format they planned: counted minutes on stage to chain at least ten mixes, judged by a panel — “the mastery and the quality with which they made those mixes always impressed me.” The other is the staging he devised: a parachute hung in the center of the venue, loaded with confetti and balloons, which opened in the middle of the show over more than ten thousand people. He also remembers the scare: people packed together and lit bonfires on the floor, and in a place like that a major fire would have been terrible. Once the 80s were under way he left the format and devoted himself to television.

Judges and participants

The panel of judges was made up of emblematic voices such as Jesús Leandro, Carlos Eduardo “Charlie” Ball, Jimmy Craisens, Beatriz Crocquer, Rolando Freytes, Marcos Vinicio Lacavalerie, William Rey, Alejandro Blanco, Enrique Hoffman and Musiuito. The funnel came in three stages: out of some 60 minitecas from all over Caracas the committee selected 10, and 8 finally took the stage:

• · Disco Music
• · Savannah
• · Explosión
• · Lechuga's People
• · New Fire
• · Crazy Full
• · Soul Discoteque
• · Supervolumen

The absentees

Erotic Soul and Rex Solu were also selected, but they did not attend. Although the poster announced the presence of the Orquesta Dimensión Latina, no one recalls its actually attending the event.

The poster for the event was already printed when the ten selected became eight, so it was corrected by hand: the two lines of those that did not come were painted over and the figure heading the list was touched up.

Results

The rest received plaques for taking part. During Soul Discoteque's performance, the company Audiorama (in charge of the audio) disconnected all the cables of its central sound system in the middle of the set.

• · First place: Miniteca Crazy Full (Julio La Guardia and “El Perro”), prize of 3,000 Bs.
• · Second place: Miniteca Explosión (Dante Tulipano, Alejandro de Santis and Toni Zoz), prize of 2,000 Bs.
• · Third place: Miniteca Supervolumen (Fiorenzo Iannarella), prize of 1,000 Bs.

Cultural impact

This first Guerra de Minitecas was not only a musical competition: it was the start of a cultural dynamic that would raise the minitecas to protagonists of Venezuelan nightlife. Stagecraft, spectacle, voice and youth identity converged that night, creating a phenomenon that shaped the aesthetics, the sound and the collective memory of entire generations.

Credits and sources

• · History based on “La Revista de las Minitecas” by Vladimir Medina (special edition celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Colegio San Agustín del Paraíso), and on press reports of the period. Information gathered and verified by Cultura MTK.
• · Primary press source: period clipping “Concierto de Orquestas y Minitecas en El Poliedro” — from it come the full name of the event (“Concierto juvenil de Orquestas y Guerra de Minitecas”), the five estimated hours of show, the seven years since the founding of Dimensión Latina, the composition of the “jurado de los bailes” and the prizes of Bs. 3,000, 2,000 and 1,000. The general admission of Bs. 20 appears on the ticket itself.
• · Rules of the contest (the committee's auditions, the ban on choreography and on pre-recorded mixes, 30 minutes with 2 of grace, a maximum of 3 members on stage, the running order drawn on the day itself, the ban on speaking to the judges and the 25/70/5 scale): set of regulations of the XXV anniversary graduating class of the Colegio San Agustín, collected in the compilation on the history of the minitecas by Héctor Martínez (Retro Manía Lara). Cited with attribution.
• · Authorship of the show, the mixing format, the parachute of confetti and balloons, the more than ten thousand people and the crowd's bonfires: interview with Marco Antonio “Musiuito” Lacavalerie published by the channel Minitecas Originales on YouTube, verified by oEmbed. Accessed August 1, 2026.
• · Composition of the Comité Pro-Graduación (the six names, William Núñez Alarcón's post and the school's premises) and the numbered card 0538 with the running order: two period documents from the archive of La Revista de las Minitecas (DJ Vladimir Medina) — the foot of the letter convening the minitecas, with the school's stamp and six autograph signatures, and the card handwritten and signed by Núñez Alarcón — kept in the CMTK Archive.
• · Migrated from the original article at culturaminiteka.com/clasicos-en-guerra/1979-primera-guerra (accessed July 9, 2026).