concert

More new acts announced for 2021’s edition of Barcelona’s biggest music festival

City council was to pay €200,000 in the middle of the health crisis, prompting bands to pull out

Mayor Colau wants the concerts to be an homage to the resistance of people in the face of coronavirus

Local artists set up new initiative to keep spirits up with thousands in Catalonia and Spain in isolation

February brings with it impressive public light shows, parades and fancy-dress for carnival, and the season of eating one of the most traditional Catalan green onions - calçots! 

Enjoy concerts, markets, and an orchestral performance accompanying one of the greatest cinematic works ever made, in this quieter period following the Christmas season

The final month of the year always brings about wonderful Christmas activities to enjoy, here's our picks of what to do in December in Catalonia

Tickets to see Catalan singing star go on sale at 10am on Monday after first gig in Palau Sant Jordi stadium sold out in two hours

Top Catalan musicians and other artistic figures take to the stage to show support for jailed and exiled leaders

The Canadians will play again on Saturday night after their unexpected performance on a small stage on the first day of the festival

A new season of music is ready at the Auditori Concert Hall, in Barcelona for the 2017-18 season. Worldwide artists will perform at the Catalan home of classical music in a mix of multicultural performances from beloved soundtracks to concerts by famous orchestra directors as Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel. The 17/18 season will continue to promote the emerging artists but it will also include ancient music through an ambitious project: the ‘Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya’. This new ‘ensemble’ of young talents, led by the world-famous Catalan musician Jordi Savall, will offer a concert dedicated to the first great Catalan baroque composer, Joan Cererols.

More than 15,000 people attended the concert ‘Our home, your home’ which is part of the homonymous campaign aimed to emphasise Catalonia’s willingness to welcome refugees. 50 artists of different origins and musical styles contributed to make the public aware of the humanitarian crisis which has left, according to the UN, more than 200 million people worldwide escaping from war and poverty. The promoters of the campaign, which gathers together more than 200 Catalan associations and NGOs and a hundred cultural companies and citizens, recalled that the Spanish Government has only received 516 refugees of the 10,772 initially established in the scheme of distribution of the European Commission. Next Saturday, Barcelona will host a demonstration to ensure that Catalan institutions act, leaving aside the inaction from Spain, to start hosting refugees in Catalonia.

U2 will play at Barcelona’s Estadi Olimpic on the 18th of July, as part of their world tour to commemorate the 30th anniversary of their acclaimed album ‘The Joshua Tree’. This will be the only concert of the Irish band in Spain, which will perform the entire album at each of the 25 shows they have confirmed. “I've sung some of these songs a lot - but never all of them”, U2 frontman Bono explained. "It seems like we have come full circle from when The Joshua Tree songs were originally written, with global upheaval, extreme right-wing politics and some fundamental human rights at risk", added guitarist The Edge. The tour will start on the 12^th of May and former Oasis member, Noel Gallagher will be the opening act at the eight European shows. Tickets for the Barcelona concert will be released next Monday, the 16th of January.

The Mies van der Rohe Award is the Catalan capital-based European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, which is among the world's most prestigious awards in this field. It is named after the architect who designed the German Pavilion for the 1929 Barcelona International Exhibition. At each of its biennial editions, two works are awarded: one with the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture and the other with the Emerging Architect Special Mention. For this year, the Philharmonic Hall of Szczecin (Poland) designed by Barcelona-based architects Alberto Veiga (Spain, 1973) and Fabrizio Barozzi (Italy, 1976) has been announced as the prize winner. The work was realised in collaboration with Studio A4. The Catalan ARQUITECTURA-G has obtained the Emerging Architect Award with the work 'Luz House'. The winners were chosen from a list of 420 works from 36 European countries.

This year, bands Oques Grasses and La iaia, singer-songwriter Sílvia Pérez Cruz and DJ Guillamino will perform in Central Park. The New York SummerStage Festival will present the 2^nd edition of 'Catalan Sounds on Tour' on 28 June, a Sunday afternoon of Catalan music at this internationally-renown festival. More than 5,000 people are expected to attend, with the event being free and running from 2.00 p.m. to 7.00 p.m. The initiative is the result of a partnership between the Institut Ramon Llull (a public body for the promotion of Catalan language and cultural production abroad) and the SummerStage Festival. Its purpose is to bring Catalan music to international audiences.