festival

The 22nd edition of Barcelona’s Sónar festival – one of Europe's most well-known electronic music events – is about to kick off, taking place between the 18th and 20th of June. This year, Sónar's activities are divided into two main locations: Sónar by Day and Sónar+D (the professional event on digital creative industries) will be held in Fira de Barcelona’s Montjuic venue, with Sónar by Night taking place at the Fira GranVia L'Hospitalet venue. The festival features 147 concerts (morning, afternoon and night sessions) in addition to 120 activities related to Sónar+D, which this year makes an ambitious leap forward in comparison to previous editions. The eclectic 2015 line-up includes several internationally renowned artists. Among the most famous ones appearing on stage will be: The Chemical Brothers, Autechre, Skrillex, Hot Chip, Die Antwoord, Flying Lotus, Jamie XX, Arca and Duran Duran.

The 10^th edition of Barcelona Design Week started Monday with a programme of more than 70 activities, under the slogan 'Design is here!' ('el Disseny és aquí'). The event is a call for companies, designers and other agents of the business, innovation and creativity fields, and it is also open to the wider public, with event locations scattered throughout Barcelona. Barcelona Design Week also marks the beginning of the 5^th Barcelona Design Festival, which is being held from 8 June to 5 July. Among the new features is the 'Design is Future Congresstival,' midway between the conference and the festival, which delves into the world of innovation through design.

In 15 years, Primavera Sound has established itself as the most international musical festival in Southern Europe and a global point of reference in the realm of urban music events, particularly among indie and pop fans. With more than 190,000 festival-goers expected this year, the core of the show takes place in Barcelona's Fòrum Park - an enormous setup by the sea - from Thursday the 28^th to Saturday the 30^th of May. During this 3-day-session, a total of 193 concerts will be held, with international artists performing non-stop from the afternoon (around 5 p.m.) until the next morning. The 2015 line-up looks once again to be pretty spectacular: The Black Keys, Interpol, The Replacements, alt-J, Underworld, Damien Rice, Belle & Sebastian, The Strokes, Patti Smith, Tori Amos, Antony and the Johnsons, Ride, Caribou and many (many) others will be playing on the 8 main stages of the festival. 49 concerts can be followed in high definition streaming on both the web and via the festival’s official app.

The 60^th edition of the 'Girona, Temps de Flors' flower festival kicked off on Saturday and will run until the 17^th of May. For the event, around 1,000 students, volunteers, designers and florists have come together, working on 164 flower installations, distributed over 134 spaces all around the city. The festival is expected to attract more than 200,000 visitors, providing the city with a true international dimension. Two official itineraries have been set up, allowing tourists to walk around discovering many of Girona's magical corners. According to event organisers, the top 10 sites not to be missed are: the Funeral Chapel of Sant Nicolau, the Basilica of Sant Feliu, Jurats Square, the Arab Baths, the Girona's iconic Cathedral, the Church of Sant Lluc, the building of Sarraïnes, Rabbin House Lleó Avinay, Els Alemanys Gardens and the Church of Sant Martí. This year, the Festival's budget amounted to €400,000.

The 18^th edition of the international documentary film festival DocsBarcelona will open its doors on 25 May. This year, 42 films from 26 countries will be screened in 3 different locations: the Aribau Cinema Club, the CCCB (Barcelona's Contemporary Culture Centre) and La Pedrera's cultural centre, located in Antoni Gaudí's famous building. Through the rich selection of this edition's programme, a wide range of human and social issues will be explored. These will include individual and family stories, pieces on historical memory, films to do with fundamental rights, as well as reflections on the environment and the economy. 'Falciani’s Tax Bomb' by Ben Lewis will open the festival, while the event closing will take place on 31 May with the screening of 'Dancing with Maria' by Ivan Gergolet.

The Catalan film director Isabel Coixet screened her second latest film 'Learning to drive', starring Ben Kingsley and Patricia Clarkson at the Málaga Film Festival this Friday. Coixet,is probably the most internationally acclaimed contemporary Catalan filmmaker, having directed 10 feature-length films including 'Things I Never Told You' (1996),  My Life Without Me (2003) which won a Goya Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and was nominated for Berlin's Golden Bear, 'The Secret Life of Words' (2005) which won the main Goya Awards, and ' Map of the Sounds of Tokyo' (2009). Coixet manages to craft her films in her own style, whilst also working  also  with Hollywood stars such as Ben Kingsley, Tim Robbins and Penélope Cruz. She has also been involved in the making of many documentary films and commercials.

Like in 11 other countries around the world, Catalans celebrate their national patron saint, St. George the dragon-slayer, on the 23rd of April every year. In Catalonia, however, rather than an occasion entrenched in patriotism, Sant Jordi is revered as the lovers' day and the book's day, on which loved ones demonstrate their affection for one another with the exchange of roses and books. The sun is shining and the buzzing atmosphere that fills the streets means that just walking along Les Rambles is enough of an adventure on a Sant Jordi Day such as this one. Rose sales have exceeded those of last year by 7%. The best-selling books this year have been 'Algú com tu' by Xavier Bosch (fiction) and 'És l'hora del adéus' by Xavier Sala i Martín (non-fiction) in Catalan and 'Destino, la Templanza' by María Dueñas (fiction) and 'MasterChef. Grandes platos para todos los días' by Jordi Cruz (non-fiction) in Spanish. In total, 1.5 million books will have been sold by the end of the day.

On the 23^rd of April, Catalans celebrate the day of their patron saint, Jordi (Saint George). The day is Catalonia's equivalent to Valentine's Day in the Anglo-Saxon world but it is also a day that pays homage to worldwide literature and reading. Men and women offer books and roses to those they love: relatives, friends, work colleagues and particularly to lovers and partners. Every year introduces twists to the tradition with 2015 presenting the 'TecnoRose' amongst other innovative designs. In addition, many authors spend the day touring around to give readers signed copies of their books. The amount of books sold this year is expected to follow the success and exceed the sales of 2014. 'El món blau. Estima el teu caos' by Albert Espinosa and 'La templanza' by Maria Dueñas are predicted to be among the bestsellers.

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 1^st to the 31^st 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 39^th 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).

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 2^nd 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.

Sónar+D is an international professional conference for creativity and technological innovation, which coincides with Barcelona's Sónar Festival of electronic and advanced music. The 3^rd edition of the professional event will take place in Barcelona on the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th of June 2015, at the same time as the popular and prestigious music festival. Its main aim is to bring together international experts presenting initiatives and tools that will shape future creative experiences in the fields of music, visuals, and interactive content and transmedia platforms. This year, 4,000 professionals and 2,000 companies from all over the world will take part in the event, a remarkable leap forward on last year's figures. "It is not just a fair or a conference", Sonar co-Director Ricard Robles said on Thursday. "It is a 360-degree, all encompassing event, a point of interaction between the creative and technological communities".

Salvador Sunyer, Director of the theatre festival Temporada Alta, is a great example of what defines an entrepreneur. He created the company ‘Bitò Produccions’ in Girona in 1992 along with two professional local actors who wanted to stimulate theatrical activities in the city. They immediately planned the creation of a new festival called the ‘Temporada Alta’ 24 years ago as a short cycle based on premieres, but it has grown at such a great speed that they have achieved a 90% occupancy rate every year since 2000. Last year they sold 94% of all tickets. Without a doubt, the Festival has become a point of reference in the sector, considered by experts as the best festival in Spain in terms of quality and pioneering spirit. For this reason, in 2010, Sunyer received Catalonia's National Theatral Award. Sunyer works hard to bring to Girona the greatest artists from the international scene as well as being a platform for presenting new local talents

Being the European capital of Circus Arts 5 days a year seems not to be enough for the Catalan city of Figueres (near the Costa Brava and the French border). On Monday, in a press conference that took place a week after the 4th edition of the city's International Circus Festival, Mayor Marta Felip and Festival Director Genís Matabosch announced a plan to become the Word Circus Capital by 2018. Figueres is already working on the project, which will coincide with the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the circus in Spain. A City of Circus is to be created, a very ambitious project that will host - among others draws - a museum, a high-performance centre for international artists and a permanent big top with a resident show every half-year.

The 'calçot' - a type of long white spring onion - is a traditional food in Catalonia, a delicacy from the winter months, eaten with its own sauce. In Valls, the cradle of 'calçots', local and international chefs meet to create new dishes with this ingredient. The 'calçots' season, which starts in November and lasts until April, officially begins during the last weekend of January, when Valls celebrates its ‘Gran Festa de la Calçotada’. This party, which attracts thousands of people and media from around the world, is one of the most important Catalan gastronomic events. But why is Valls the capital of 'calçotades'? What is the correct way to cook 'calçots' and its sauce like a professional, and why is this event becoming so international?

The Costa Brava-based Cap Roig's music festival will hold its 15^th 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.