summer festival

Barcelona's performing arts summer festival Grec to be opened by Catalan dance company La Veronal

April 17, 2015 09:46 PM | ACN

Barcelona's summer Festival Grec is the city’s main yearly event for theatre, dance, music, circus and other stage arts, taking place from the 1st to the 31st of July. On Wednesday, the Festival's Director, Ramon Simó, announced that the dance show 'Vorònia' by Catalan company La Veronal will open the event, also disclosing some of the shows in the 2015 programme. This year, the Grec will celebrate its 39th edition and by now it has become a milestone on the European festival calendar. The event’s title is taken from its main venue: the Greek Theatre, on Montjuïc, an open-air theatre built for the 1929 Universal Exhibition. In total, last year's edition attracted 127,471 people, of which 79,254 went to see shows which required payment (79 in total).

New York's SummerStage festival to showcase Catalan musicians for 2nd year in a row

April 10, 2015 08:59 PM | ACN

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 2nd 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.

Sting, Ben Harper, Tony Bennett & Lady Gaga to play 2015 Cap Roig festival on the Costa Brava

March 6, 2015 10:02 PM | ACN

The Costa Brava-based Cap Roig's music festival will hold its 15th edition from 10 July to 16 August. Many international and local artists will take part in the event which will start with a performance by one of the greatest exponents of British pop-rock, Sting. The following day, American singer-songwriter Ben Harper will be on stage playing with his legendary band, The Innocent Criminals, in their first tour together for seven years. The festival will also host other big names of international renown such as Lady Gaga & Tony Bennett, Rosario, Antonio Orozco, Julieta Venegas, Miguel Bosé, Passenger and Macaco. Among the featured Catalan artists will be: Mishima with Joan Miquel Oliver, Blaumut, Els Amics de les Arts and Núria Graham. The festival will end with Alejandro Sanz's performance.

Solsona’s International Music Academy welcomes 65 young talents from 20 different nationalities

August 12, 2014 08:52 PM | ACN / Neringa Sinkeviciute

Solsona's International Music Academy (AIMS) is a high level international project, which is also the first and only pedagogical music festival in Catalonia. It was created by the German cellist Peter Thiemann in order to bring together classical music students and professors of acknowledged international prestige who play in Europe's main orchestras. It is an intensive education project which takes place in a beautiful rural environment in Solsona, a town near the Pyrenees in Central Catalonia. This year, the 13th edition of the AIMS festival is held from the 6th to the 17th of August, and includes the participation of 65 students from 20 different nationalities. 30 concerts have been scheduled in ten municipalities of Western and Central Catalonia.

Electronic music pioneers Pet Shop Boys rock the stage at Costa Brava summer festival Cap Roig

August 4, 2014 09:09 PM | ACN / Neringa Sinkeviciute

On Sunday night Pet Shop Boys presented their 12th studio album, Electric, at the summer music festival of Cap Roig, which takes place every year in Calella de Palafrugell, in the Costa Brava. The band performed an extraordinary show which included lighting effects, such as laser light beams, colourful theatrical smoke, and screen projections. Combining synthpop style, house and techno with more recent dance tracks, they have managed to evolve over the years but at the same time preserve their distinct style and continue to be revolutionary with every release. Cap Roig Festival is taking place from the 4th of July to the 15th of August and is combining worldwide-known artists and local musicians, such as Elton John, Bryan Adams, Placebo, James Blunt, Antonio Orozco and Els Pets, among others.

Barcelona's performing arts summer festival Grec attracts 80,000 spectators, filling 58% of the potential capacity

August 1, 2014 08:56 PM | ACN

This year's edition of Barcelona's performing arts summer festival, Grec, attracted around 80,000 spectators and achieved a 58.15% capacity utilisation in the shows which require payment. According to provisional statistics, taken before the event was over, for the 79 shows that made up the summer festival there were 136,291 seats available and 67,623 tickets were sold, filling 49.61% of the potential capacity. However, overall there was total of 79,254 spectators. Last year 66,466 people attended the shows which required payment and 55,766 tickets were sold. The total number of spectators who attended the festival this year, both paying customers and those who went to free shows, amounted to 127,471 people, whilst in 2013 there were 119,000 individuals.

Over 30,000 people are estimated to attend open air film festival in Barcelona this summer

July 31, 2014 05:40 PM | Rebecca Lock

The 12th Edition of Sala Montjuïc, an open air film festival which takes place every summer in Barcelona, is in full swing, and organisers estimate that over 30,000 people will have attended the event by the end of its five week running period. The festival runs from the 6th of July to the 8th of August and hosts evenings of live music, short films and feature length movies three times a week. An average of 2,000 spectators a night attend the screenings, which are located next to an old military castle on Montjuïc, a small hill facing Barcelona's harbour. Families can rent deckchairs, bring food and drink and enjoy watching the film whilst seated on the lawn alongside the castle's wall, in what used to be the ancient moat. This year one of the highlights included a special screening of the 1927 German classic Metropolis on the 18th of July which was accompanied by a live jazz band.

The Costa Brava’s music and theatre Festival of Porta Ferrada ends being an almost sold-out event

August 21, 2013 09:10 PM | ACN

The 51st edition of the International Festival of Porta Ferrada, located in the Costa Brava town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, closed its doors with an average attendance of 91%. The event contained 21 music, theatre and dance performances, which had a total attendance of 11,105 people, 10,296 who paid for tickets and 890 going to the free events on offer. 6 shows were complete sell-outs: 5 of the 10 in the Espai Port (the main stage of the festival), and the ‘Concerts per a nadons’ (Concerts for babies). Albert Mallol, Artistic Director of the Porta Ferrada festival, told the CNA that it is important try to find new venues to be added to the iconic locations that already exist in order to increase the amount of musical and theatre performances.

Barcelona’s street decoration festival ‘Festa Major de Gràcia’ launches six days of concerts and partying

August 16, 2013 09:10 PM | ACN / Julian Scully

Barcelona’s famous annual street festival, ‘Festa Major de Gràcia’ kicked-off on Wednesday evening with streets intricately decorated by neighbours and live music being played well in to the night. The event, in its 197th year, draws an estimated 1.5 million visitors and has activities for all ages including: firework displays, ‘castellers’ - Catalan human towers, decorated streets and open air concerts taking place in 47 stages. It was traditionally a religious festival for locals of the neighbourhood, but for the last five decades it has become popular with Catalonians. Furthermore, in recent years, foreigners have also discovered it. Each year the festival begins on the 15th of August and lasts for six days.

Costa Brava’s Festival of Peralada Castle hosts the world premier of the chamber opera ‘Wow!’

August 14, 2013 09:00 PM | ACN

This Wednesday, the world premier of the chamber opera ‘Wow!’ takes place at the Festival of Peralada Castle, located in northern Catalonia’s Costa Brava. The libretto is inspired by texts written by Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman, building a relationship between the two poets. The opera will be staged in the cloister of El Carme Church in Peralada, which has a capacity of 400 people. The play is structured in a single act with a prologue and four scenes. It explores the themes of dreaming, death, ascension and immortality. The score and the text are the work of Catalan composer García Demestres, while the stage director is Xavier Albertí, who is the new Director of the National Theatre of Catalonia (TNC).