Several €15 shows at Barcelona's Festival Grec 2023

Barcelona's summer culture festival, Grec, will, for the first time ever, allow viewers more flexibility when buying tickets as there will be a promotion with four, five, six, or seven shows for €15 each.

These tickets can be used on any day or for any show and people will be able to share them with others. Each show will have limited seating for this kind of ticket, therefore attendees are encouraged to book in advance, as the festival organizers said on Thursday when presenting this year's program.

Only three Grec Festival shows are not included in the promotion as they will have a 50% or higher discount available.

Two opening shows

The 2023 edition will kick off in the city center, coinciding with the 200th anniversary of the Passeig de Gràcia boulevard. 

French tightrope walker Nathan Paulin will cross Passeig de Gràcia on a steel cable following French dancer and contemporary choreographer Rachid Ouramdane's directions.

While crossing, the audience will feel a recreation of his thoughts, invaded by fear, loneliness, and the wind.

The inaugural event 'Les traceurs'  has been prepared in collaboration with local stores in the area and will take place on July 2, marking the start of weeks of performances.

However, there will be a show a few days before, on June 29, at the Grec theatre on Montjuïc hill. 'The Pulse' by Australian circus crew Gravity & Other Myths will see 30 acrobats perform alongside more than 30 members of the Women's Orfeó Català choir.

After their first show in Barcelona, they will travel to Montreal (Canada), Galway (Ireland), and Graz (Austria).

88 different shows

From June 29 to July 30, there will be 88 different shows across the city, 55% of which have women scriptwriters or directors.

Attendees will be able to enjoy 32 plays, 15 concerts, 14 hybrid performances, 13 dance shows, 12 circus performances — doubling the number seen in previous years — and two movies.

All of them will take place at "unique, singulars, and special spaces in Barcelona," as the festival announced that shows are scheduled at the Rei Martí cistern, the Sant Pau modernism art nouveau hospital, and 'La Model' old prison, among other new venues.

International artists in Barcelona

Belgian Ivo van Hove director, German choreographer Sasha Waltz,  Greek experimental theater stage director Dimitris Papaioannou, and American experimental theater stage director Robert Wilson are some of the major international figures coming to the city during the Grec festival.

Ivo van Hove will bring his 'Who killed my father' performance, while Waltz will do an international first with Liceu's opera hall symphonic orchestra performing Ludwig van Beethoven's 7th Symphony.

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Chilean Augusto Pinochet's coup d'etat, the festival will also focus part of the shows on the South American country and fascism.