Ésdansa festival breaking molds in folk dancing

Each dancer has its own dance style and Catalonia also has several traditional dances. And one of the best places to experience it is Ésdansa, a music festival running since 1983 breaking molds in folk dancing.

This year, the event held its 42nd edition, with around 90% of the tickets sold for the shows at the week-long festival. There were nearly 10,000 tickets sold.

"We’re very happy, the amount of people coming to the shows has been huge. In fact two shows, Folk as Queer and Yarín, were completely sold out," Núria Feixas, the director of the music festival, told Catalan News Agency (ACN).

Ésdansa held an event focusing on Andorran and Bolivian cultures to approach artists from those countries to Catalans.

"It’s been magical to put this focus on Andorra. We’ve done a few different shows and workshops to get to know Andorran traditions," Feixas said before adding that visitors got to discover a culture that "is very close to us, but it is not that different to the one in la Garrotxa."

On the other hand, "discovering Bolivian culture more, not just from what you see on stage and the dancing, which is very beautiful and spectacular, but when you get much closer to it, when you can touch the clothes or when the music and dancing are explained, where they come from, I think this is very interesting as a spectator," she concluded.

Many of the activities were held in special sites, but the most unique spot was the Pedra Tosca park, a wooded area just outside Olot, in northern-central Catalonia.

The 43rd edition will take place from August 18 to the 24 next year.