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

Barcelona (ACN).- The Costa Brava-based Cap Roig's music festival will reopen its doors on 10 July. Many international and local artists will take part to the event that 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 (in a duet between the 'pop diva' and the 20^th century ‘crooner’), 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 concert on 16 August.

The Cap Roig Festival is the biggest annual music event held on the Costa Brava and takes place in the auditorium of "Jardins de Cap Roig"’s beautiful botanical gardens on top of cliffs facing the Mediterranean Sea, located between the municipalities of Palafrugell and Mont-ras in the Catalan Province of Girona. So far, 18 concerts have been confirmed for this the 15^th edition but organisers do not rule out other performances being added later. The event will bring together some of the most important contemporary Spanish artists such as Pablo Alboran (number 1 in the official sales list in recent years) and Miguel Bosé, who will both present their new albums, Rosario, Antonio Orozco, Macaco, David Bustamante and the Teen pop phenomenon Gemeliers.

The festival will also feature "Cap Roig Mini", a special section dedicated to kids with Peppa Pig and the stars of ClubSuper3 (a kids TV channel from the Catalan Public Broadcaster Televisió de Catalunya), participating as special guests.

Important presence of Catalan Artists

However, Cap Roig Festival is not just about big names of international renown. Many local artists will participate as well. From the local pop-rock scene there will be Els Amics de les Arts, who will celebrate their 10^th anniversary, Blaumut with Núria Graham as guest artist and Michima and Joan Miquel Oliver, who will perform in a "double concerto" during the same night.

Choral music will be featured as well, with the vocal groups DeuDeVeu and In Crescendo, the latter being the winners of the Catalan TV show 'Oh Happy Day' aired on TV3 (the main channel of Televisió de Catalunya). This will be a charity concert with part of the profits going to Foundation Oncolliga Girona, a non-profit organisation that helps cancer patients and their families in the province of Girona.

15^th edition: a €100,000 budget increase to a total of €2.57 million

For this 15^th edition, the Cap Roig music festival has increased its 2015 budget by €100,000, primarily earmarked for covering recruiting-related expenses, thus reaching a total of €2.57 million, with tickets that range from €20 to a maximum of €180. According to Juli Guiu, the Festival's Director, the number of people from the UK and the Netherlands attending the event has increased over the past years, in addition to the usually strong French presence.

Jaume Giró, CEO of the "la Caixa" Banking Foundation, which sponsors the festival, explained that the final aim is "everyone's satisfaction," starting from that of the public, who are the ones "who give life to the festival." In this regard, he acknowledged that he hopes to repeat last year's success, when a new attendance-record was broken, which is, he added, what "makes this event economically sustainable."

The history of the Festival's location

The Cap Roig Castle and its Botanical Gardens were built by Russian Colonel Nicolai Woevodsky, and his wife, the English aristocrat Dorothy Webster, who settled down in this special enclave by the sea in 1927. Currently, its legacy is kept alive by the Obra Social "la Caixa". Cap Roig is considered one of the most important botanical gardens of the Mediterranean. Its open air auditorium is famous for being the venue of Cap Roig's summer music festival.