Music festival PortalBlau paves the way for Mediterranean musical exchanges

Cultural diversity and greater cooperation plan to unite Southern European musical scene. The PortalBlau music festival held in the Catalan Costa Brava has created a website to foster exchanges between music festivals across the Mediterranean sea.

Mireia Sánchez

June 11, 2010 01:34 AM

L'Escala (CNA).- PortalBlau, the Mediterranean music and arts festival held in the coastal town of L'Escala (in the Costa Brava) is paving the way for creating a cultural exchange website between Mediterranean music festivals. The festival director, Abel Font, said that the initiative, which will allow for the exchange of artists and musical productions, is a long-term project. How this cooperation will develop from here will be debated on 17th June in a meeting of festival directors from Italy, Argelia and France, among other countries.

The third edition of the PortalBlau Festival at L’Escala will start on the 6th August at the recently restored Roman Forum of Empúries on the Costa Brava (Alt Empordà). Miguel Poveda, an important figure of contemporary flamenco, will be the headline act of the festival, which also includes important Catalan artists such as Quimi Portet, Sílvia Pérez Cruz and Cris Juanico.

The director of the PortalBlau festival, Abel Font, hopes the project will "bear fruit". The free conferences will take place on 17th June at the Museu de l’Anxova i de la Sal (Anchovy and Salt Museum) in L’Escala, a fishing town on the Costa Brava. They will be divided into three sections. The first debate will join together different Mediterranean music festival directors and will be used to exchange experiences and knowledge about cultural diversity. The second one will bring together journalists and communication professionals. Among the speakers will be the director of the Icat Fm radio, Mingus B. Formentor, and a representative of the French television channel TV5 Monde Magreb, Zina Berrahal. The third session will bring together representatives of projects and websites working to create an international space for cooperation with the Mediterranean as the backbone to the project.After the conferences, there will be a guided visit of the Greco-Roman ruins of Empúries and a dinner at the Restaurant El Molí de l’Escala. The Catalan singer, Sílvia Pérez Cruz, accompanied by the guitarist Toti Soler, will end the event with a concert at the restaurant.