The cultural season begins in the Empordà. At Porta Ferrada, the oldest of the festivals in Catalonia, the Salat starts tonight, full of humor stars like Berto or Martita de Graná. The appointment of Sant Feliu de Guíxols touched in its last edition the 50,000 spectators, a figure that doubles the inhabitants of the city and that illustrates very well what happens in the Empordà around these dates: the floating population multiplies (the sum of tourists and a lot of Barcelonans with second homes) and the cultural offer as well. Festivals, art exhibitions and museums are in full swing.
The phenomenon is not new, but it does not stop growing. This 2023 new festivals will be released such as Idílic in Platja d’Aro, and Ferran Adrià inaugurated a new museum in Cala Montjoi at the beginning of the month, elBulli1846, where the milestones of the restaurant that changed the history of cooking are explained. Meanwhile, the works continue so that in 2025 the Thyssen de Sant Feliu opens its doors and in peralada a permanent auditorium that will include a museum is also being built. Three art galleries from Barcelona and Madrid have moved to Corçà, next to La Bisbal, to put together an exhibition in an old flour factory that can be seen until September. And all just a step away from France, where the cultural offer is, as we know, unlimited and this coming Monday Les Rencontres d’Arles will begin. The cultural summer begins in the Empordà. Here are 12 clues to get the most out of it.
Salat, the festival of humor
Today Friday begins the third edition of Salat, the Porta Ferrada humor festival with 8,000 tickets sold (it is its most successful edition to date). The stars of the bill are Les Luthiers, who will give their last European gig at the festival, Berto Romero (after chaining 40 ‘sold outs’ at the Coliseum with ‘Lo nunca visto’), Leo Harlem, the feminist podcast Oye Polo de Maria Rovira and Ana Polo and the megastar Martita de Graná, with a million followers on Facebook and another on Instagram.
Cap Roig, Calella de Palafrugell’s ’boutique’ festival, opens on July 14 with a classic of the British rock aristocracy, Rod Stewart, seven years after his last visit to Catalonia (in the same festival), aboard his ‘The hits’ tour. From now on, and until August 17, it will host 23 concerts, four more than in 2022, covering everything from Latin and international pop to native classics, with figures such as Sebastián Yatra, Norah Jones, Simply Red, Pablo López, Juan Diego Flórez or Silvia Perez Cruz.
The one in Sant Feliu de Guíxols is the dean of Catalan shows and, after celebrating 60 years in 2022, Porta Ferrada maintains the momentum of the anniversary with a program of 46 shows that starts on June 30 with monologues and comedy to open up to music from the Pink Martini concert on July 7. On the bill, Les Luthiers, Ludovico Einaudi, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, Pat Metheny, Jethro Tull, Jorge Drexler and Wilco, until closing with El Barrio on August 20.
This is a year of transition for the festival of the gardens of the Castell de Peralada, given that the site is hosting the construction works of its new auditorium, to open in the summer of 2024. All in all, an offer of eleven shows shines, markedly classic sign, which will open the Italian-British tenor Freddie de Tommaso (July 28) and will be followed by recitals such as the one by the Diana Damrau-Nicolás Testé couple, the early music of Jordi Savall or the tenor Jonathan Tetelman, as well as the solo dance by Israel Galván.
Between July 6 and 9, Festival Z is held between Salt and Girona, which, as its name suggests, is dedicated to the most emerging and rabidly young theater. It is a mentoring appointment in which all the participants are under 30 years of age and have a tutor. This year the motto is ‘Unicorns in sight!’ and the LGTBI presence in the Catalan theater will be discussed. The shows are short (maximum 40 minutes) and very affordable (there are free ones and many are around 6 euros). In collaboration with Píndoles, the festival is based in the spectacular Casa Marès, a farmhouse from 1823 in the middle of the Pujals dels Cavallers forest, in Pla de l’Estany.
One of the new appointments for this 2023 is the Idílic festival, which opens on July 28 and 29. Promoted by The Project, it is held at Masia Bas, in Platja d’Aro. The poster moves between the commercial pop and enjoyment of La Casa Azul, Nena Daconte, Melendi and the rap of Pol Granch.
Until August 27, three art galleries from three generations, NoguerasBlanchard, Bombon and Joan Prats leave their respective headquarters in Barcelona and Madrid to go to the Empordà for the summer. There they have landed in an old flour factory in Corçà, near La Bisbal, in L’Antiga Farinera (with a medieval tower included) where they propose the collective exhibition ‘Meridiano Espíritu Fantástico’ in which masters such as Miró or Joan Hernández Pijuan mix with mid-career artists –Esther Partegás, Juliana Cerqueira Leite, Joana Escoval or Lara Fluxá– and emerging artists such as Tadáskía.
Not far from Corçà is Casavells, where the Palau de Casavells is located, the Empordà headquarters of the Miquel Alzueta Gallery, which has accumulated more than 15 years and 100 exhibitions in this privileged space. The 3,000 square meters of this 14th century palace are set aside this summer for a retrospective that covers the last 20 years of Laurent Martin’s career, the so-called ‘bamboo poet’. It can be seen until September 3.
Jazz in front of the Illes Medes
Not everything is going to be pop, rap or electronic. Jazz L’Estartit has spent nearly a decade offering fans of the genre concerts with reduced capacity, at sunset, facing the sea and with the Illes Medes in the background, a combo that is difficult to beat. The Torroella de Montgrí Festival is held from July 29 to August 18 and this year its line-up also contains some pearls such as the concert given by Maria del Mar Bonet with L’Arpeggiatta, a group specialized in recreating 17th century music. It will be on August 6.
Little by little, the Sons del Món that is held in the Ciutadella de Roses (next to the Greek site of Rhode, origin of the city) has been gaining a place in the most hedonistic festival circuit of the Empordà. This year the party will be guaranteed with names like Locomia, Chanel, Vicco, The Jacksons or Guitarricadelafuente. Sopa de Cabra, Julieta, Stay Homas, Antonio Orozco, Raphael and Ara Malikian are other prominent names at this event from July 21 to August 7.
The Dalí triangle formed by the castle of Púbol, Dalí’s house in Portlligat and the Teatre Museu Dalí in Figeres is one of the great magnets of the Empordà. In Figueres, where you can see the exhibition ‘Transgredint la Venus’, the museum will open at night (from 10 pm to 1 am) from July 29 to August 27. And for the third consecutive year, the Dalí de Figueres project will transform the city at night, projecting life-size portraits of the artist on facades. On August 3, 10 and 17, a nocturnal film cycle of surreal films will bring together the films of the most universal Empordà.
‘Bonus track’ in Perpignan
Lovers of the most committed photography have an unmissable date with Visa por l’image, the veteran photojournalism festival that stops in Perpignan every summer, this year from September 2 to 17. Visa turns 35 this 2023 and celebrates it with a sample of the best current photojournalism, showing the work of reporters from the VU agencies, Associated Pressy Magnum and headlines such as The New York Times or Le Figaro. The bloody battle of Bakhmut, the first climate refugees in the United States, the Iranian revolt or the less Instagrammable side of life in Silicon Valley are some of the exhibitions planned.