More than a hundred concerts in 12 open and free urban stages, recovering spaces such as the Cathedral avenue or the Raval boulevard, frame the Mercè’s return to normality after the biennium of pandemic restrictions. A wide-ranging poster, with an accent on the local scene, which will be displayed from Friday, September 23 to Monday, September 26, and which covers everything from pop to Van Gogh’s Ear to a flamenco institution such as Pepe Habichuela, passed through figures such as Juan Perro, Alizzz, La Pegatina, Els Catarres, Rita Payés with Lucía Fumero or Vinicio Capossela.
In line with recent years, three branches have emerged from La Mercè, the most voluminous offering, with the Música Mercè brand, and the alternative plots of BAM and Acció Cultura Viva. In the central lane, now after the premiere, in the artistic direction, by Gisela Sais, the Avenida de la Catedral with the lively Latin music of Juan Perro, the black-tie guitar of Pepe Habichuela or the historic rumbero Peret Reyes.
at the Teatre Grec, the alliance of the trombone of Rita Payés with the piano of Lucía Fumerothe tribute ’25 anys sin Tete Montoliu’, the Cuban Alain Pérez (ex-Irakere) or the heterodox Italian singer-songwriter Vinicio Capossela.
Influencing the decentralization of the program, stages such as the Jardins del Doctor Pla i Armengol, in Horta-Guinardó, with restless creators such as Xarim Aresté, Nico Roig or the Sardinian Paolo Angeli.
Verbenas on the beach
For the most massive gatherings, there will be the Bogatell beach, whose ‘Mediterranean’ stage, of Estrella Damm, will host two separate triple banners, the one consisting of Alizzz (the producer of C. Tangana, with his first personal album), the rapper Santa Greetings and the urban music group from Sabadell 31Fam (23) and the one that integrates the reunified Delafé and Las Flores Azules, the folk-pop trio Els Catarres and Marcel i Júlia, with Marcel Lázara, exTxarango (24th).
And on Avinguda de Maria Cristina, three nights of pop and party agitation with the signatures of as many music radio stations and headliners of the popular depth of Van Gogh’s Ear (23, by Cadena 100), La Pegatina and Itaca Band (23, Europa FM) and Búhos and Stay Homas (24, RAC 105).
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At BAM (Barcelona Acció Musical), attention to the “dissident identities”, with proposals of “extreme music”, defines the festival, which point both to the review of folklore, case of Los Voluble or Menorcan Anna Ferrer (both in the Old Fàbrica Estrella Damm), as well as to the sounds of the south, with the Moroccan female group ‘gnawa’ Asmâa Hamzaoui & Bnat Timbouktou (on another recovered stage, the Rambla del Raval) or the most dislocated futuristic pop, in the voice of Moon Ki (Moll of the Whip). Singularities such as the Catalan-Moroccan rapper Miss Raisa and the Swedish Molly Nilsson, coexisting with the Acció Cultura Viva program, the result of filtering more than 500 proposals from its open call.
There, Koers, Eli Almic and La Maga will perform at the Nau Bostik, while the Fabra i Coats venue will receive, among others, Remei from Ca la Fresca, Eva Fernández and Senyor Oca, as well as hosting the Fira Discogràfica, a broadcast community radio, workshops and other activities.