GuitarBcn 2018 festival promises to be ‘the best in its history’
Final line-up for Barcelona’s annual guitar festival announced, while Girona presents an expanded Black Music Festival
Future Islands, Doctor Prats, Marcel Lázara and Júlia Arrey, Fatoumata Diawara and Antonio Carmona are the musical acts that have been added to the programme for the GuitarBcn 2018 music festival, which begins on Saturday with a Jorge Drexler concert in the Liceu opera house in Barcelona.
Already confirmed for this edition of the Barcelona guitar festival were Bob Dylan, Ringo Starr, Joe Satriani’s G3 with John Petrucci and Uli Jon Roth, Deacon Blue, Benjamine Clementine, El Kanka, Rosario, Asaf Avidan, Maria Arnal and Marcel Bagés. An extra 25,000 tickets have been sold this year, raising expected attendance numbers to 60,000.
In the presentation of GuitarBcn 2018 on Thursday, festival director Joan Roselló predicted that this year’s edition promises to be the “the best in its history”. "We are holding the best GuitarBcn we have ever done because we have multiplied all of the features that make up the festival’s DNA,” said Roselló.
GuitarBcn 2018, which has a budget of 1.8 million euros, will feature 38 concerts in different venues between January and July. According to artistic director, Judit Llimós, what makes GuitarBcn stand out is its role as a “dynamic platform” promoting the profiles of numerous Catalan and Spanish acts. At the end of the presentation, Jorge Drexler was awarded this year’s Pua d'Or prize in recognition of his professional career.
Girona’s Black Music Festival
Thursday also saw the presentation of the 17th edition of Girona’s Black Music Festival (BMF), with the announcement of new activities. The festival devoted to black music, which will take place from March 1 to 18, will now include a performance by Gramophone Allstars in the Sant Narcís civic center, and an open day dedicated to urban culture in the Santa Eugènia neighborhood.
Another novelty in this year’s program is the inclusion of performances in Mataró and in the Espai Ter in Torroella de Montgrí (Baix Empordà). Meanwhile, artists like Gaspar, Mambo Jambo and Soul Machine have been added to the line-up that already included the likes of Martha Reeves, Eric Gales and La Raíz. What’s more, the festival this year signed new agreements with the local authorities, ensuring its future to at least 2020.
The BMF continues to grow and this year yet more venues have been added. Apart from Girona and nearby Salt, there will also be events in Bescanó and Fornells de la Selva, along with the aforementioned Torroella de Montgrí. Beyond the Girona area, the BMF this year also arrives in Mataró, Barcelona, Reus and Perpignan.