music

more than 123,000 people visited the festival during the three days

55% of the ticket-holders were from outside of Spain and 125 nationalities were registered

One of the most important singer-writers in the Catalan language took the stage for the last time on Sunday at the iconic Palau de la Música in Barcelona. Raimon, leading voice of the Nova Cançó cultural and protest movement, said good bye with an emotional concert after more than 50 years on stage. With all the tickets sold out, Raimon said he wanted to finish his career with the same attitude as he started it, and sang ‘Al Vent’, an anti-Franco protest song that became a popular anthem against the fascist dictatorship in Spain. The concert on Sunday was the last of twelve evenings at the Palau de la Música in which the singer from Xàtiva performed old favorites but also more modern songs accompanied by a children’s choir.

Björk, the famous Icelandic singer, will perform an exclusive four-hour DJ session for Sónar festival’s opening night on June 14. The same day, an ‘immersive’ exhibition dedicated to the artist (‘Digital Björk’) will open its doors at Barcelona’s Center of Contemporary Culture (CCCB) and the artist will give a talk at Sónar+D. The 24th edition of the Sónar festival will open Wednesday, June 14 with Björk’s DJ performance and close on Sunday, June 18 in Barcelona’s Auditori with a Nico Muhly concert accompanied by the German orchestral group Stargaze. As for the festival’s musical program, this year’s edition comprises of outstanding names such as Justice, Nicolas Jaar, Moderat, Masters at Work, Arca & Jesse Kanda, Soulwax, Dj Shado or De la Soul among others.

A new season of music is ready at the Auditori Concert Hall, in Barcelona for the 2017-18 season. Worldwide artists will perform at the Catalan home of classical music in a mix of multicultural performances from beloved soundtracks to concerts by famous orchestra directors as Venezuelan Gustavo Dudamel. The 17/18 season will continue to promote the emerging artists but it will also include ancient music through an ambitious project: the ‘Jove Capella Reial de Catalunya’. This new ‘ensemble’ of young talents, led by the world-famous Catalan musician Jordi Savall, will offer a concert dedicated to the first great Catalan baroque composer, Joan Cererols.

Music and arts festivals fill Catalonia throughout the summer season. In recent years, the number and quality of them have grown exponentially, to include the participation of international artists who sometimes choose these festivals as their only Spanish tour date. So far, Jamiroquai and Pet Shop Boys are amongst the main names announced for Cruïlla Festival, to take place from the 7th to the 9th of July at Barcelona’s Parc del Fòrum. One of the most long-standing festivals, the International Festival of Porta Ferrada, which takes place in the coastal town of Sant Feliu de Guíxols, will have in their line-up Jamie Cullum and UB40, amongst many others. Beyond the festivals, no other than Sir Elton John has also confirmed that he will perform in Barcelona his only concert in Spain. This will be on the 3rd of December. 

El Vendrell, a coastal town near Tarragona in southern Catalonia, will hold from the 29th of September to the 30th of October some 20 activities to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Pau Casals’ birth. The programme for ‘Pau Casals Month’ includes conferences, concerts and exhibitions which aim to pay tribute to the prominent cellist. The two principal activities will be the talks given by Casals’s widow and the Abbot of Montserrat, Josep Maria Soler Canals. The commemoration, which last year went on for a week, has been extended to a month this 2016. El Vendrell’s Councillor for Culture, Eva Serramià, stated during the presentation of the programme on Monday that the goal of this extension is to “surpass the local sphere and situate El Vendrell in the international scene”.

The pop diva Beyoncé chose the Catalan capital as her one and only stop in Spain on ‘The Formation World Tour’. Nearly 50,000 fans will enjoy the show, which is set to combine both the diva’s main hits and her latest songs from her album ‘Lemonade’. ‘The Formation World Tour’, which started in Miami last April, will end in September and has sold more than a million tickets so far. The last time Beyoncé visited Barcelona was in 2014, as part of her 'Mrs. Carter World Tour’. Beyoncé’s concert at Barcelona’s Estadi Olimpic confirms that the Catalan capital is an unmissable stop for international music. This year alone, Adele, Coldplay, Beyoncé and Rihanna have chosen Barcelona for their only tour dates in Spain. 

Sónar 2016 closed its doors on its 23^rd edition with 115,500 visitors from a hundred countries. This figure is slightly lower than 2015, but maintains the last five-year average. This year, the voices of artists that had highly critical content had special relevance, noted the organisers of the festival. The co-director of the festival, Ricard Robles, said that foreign nationals who attended were mostly British, then French, German, and Italian, with an increased presence of Americans. Co-director Ventura Barba spoke positively about the sister event to the music festival that ran parallel to it, Sónar+D, which saw the participation of more than 4,500 music professionals. The novelties for Sónar 2017 have been announced, and they include two new cities added to the international route: Istanbul and Hong Kong.

Sónar Festival began its 23^rd edition on Thursday with its first daytime sessions, welcoming the acts The Black Madonna, Kenny Dope (formerly Masters at Work), Mad Professor, sharing the stage with The Spanish Dub Invasion, British MC Lady Leshurr, and a classical piano recital by James Rhodes to the Barcelona sun. This total of 130 eclectic acts are being hosted at the Montjuic fairgrounds, where thousands of participants attended, and will presumably attend again on Friday and Saturday, where the night-time performances will be held at the Gran Via Exhibition Centre. Additionally, Sónar+D also kicked off on Thursday, serving as the intellectual and collaborative sister event to Sónar, holding conferences and activities revolving around the “future of culture, arts and technology”, according to curator, José Luis de Vicente.

The economic contribution to Catalonia’s GDP from the 2015 Sonar music festival was 72 million euros. Along with Sonar+D, a series of conferences about the relationship between creativity and technology, the event brought in 111,000 visitors from 104 different countries. This data was presented at the pre-festival press conference on Thursday. Indeed, the festival has been interested in tracking its economic impact since it created a study group to do so in 2004. To be held on the 16th, 17th, and 18th of June, Sonar 2016 will include 130 concerts by artists from 28 different countries, and will be based on a “more social” rhetoric. Meanwhile, Sonar+D will include activities in about 180 different formats, with 400 registered participants, and more than 4,000 professionals from 57 countries. Some new additions to the festival will be the new SonarCar stage, and a one-hour delay of the Sonar by Day portion of the festival. In 2016, Sonar is also offering a map of Barcelona showing the creative training offerings one can find in the Catalan capital. The metro strike should not affect the festival.

Two days after the 15^th edition of Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona closed its doors with a record 200,000 attendants, half of them international fans, Catalonia is getting ready for a vibrant summer of music festivals, attracting all types of music lovers. In Barcelona and the Costa Brava, both mass and boutique festivals are held. Mass festivals are the big, open air, hipster festivals, such as Sónar Festival, the largest electronic music festival in Europe, and Cruïlla, to name a few. Boutique festivals, on the other hand, focus not only on the music, but also on offering high-quality gastronomy and a classier atmosphere that targets a public with a higher income. In these cases, the venue is sometimes as important as the artists, which may be a castle on the Costa Brava or a cosy stage near the sea. Here is a list of some of most important events from both worlds

The 15^th edition of Barcelona’s music festival giant, Primavera Sound, has opened its doors, a long-awaited moment for indie and pop fans in the Catalan capital. Since its opening, Primavera Sound has established itself as a global point of reference in Southern Europe, with 200 artists to perform at this year’s festival on eight different stages. Some of the names performing at the festival this time out are Radiohead, PJ Harvey and the recently reformed American rock band LCD Soundsystem, along with Suede, Tame Impala, Sigur Rós and former Beach Boys leader Brian Wilson. The festival opens on Thursday but gave fans a preview on Wednesday, with its signature free night, which attendees enjoyed at Barcelona’s seaside venue Forum Park. The organisers of the festival predict some 190,000 attendees this year and half of them will come from outside Spain. 

Festival Cruïlla Barcelona has unveiled more artists that will perform at the seventh edition of the celebration, which is to be held on the 8^th, 9^th, and 10^th of July. The newly confirmed artists in the festival´s line-up are Robert Plant, along with The Sensational Space Shifters, Crystal Fighters, Cat Power, Skunk Anansie and Esperanza Spalding, amongst many others. However, one of the most outstanding artists confirmed is Robert Plant, the iconic voice of Led Zeppelin. He will perform the album ‘Lullaby…and the Ceaseless Roar’ for the first time in Spain with the accompaniment of The Sensational Space Shifters. The festival has also announced its daily concert schedule, and that it is keeping its pass price at 90 euros. 

The British singer Seal will perform on the 23^rd of July at Auditori del Parc del Castell and Canadian artist Diana Krall will also do so a few days later, on the 30^th of July. Whereas this will be the first time Seal will perform at the Castell de Peralada Festival, Krall returns on this the 30^th anniversary of the festival, after her concert in 2008. Seal will be touring his new album ‘7’ and Krall will make her only stop in Catalonia at Peralada, as part of her ‘Wallflower’ world tour. Another highlight on the festival’s line up will be Puccini’s Turandot, directed by Catalan actor and director, Mario Gas.