He director of the Cruïlla Festival, Jordi Herreruela, has celebrated this Saturday that the 2023 edition of the contest has “consolidated a dream”. In the final stretch of the contest, Herreruela explained that he plans to close the concerts with a total public influx of 76,000 people. Due to the direction of the contest, the new edition of Cruïlla has marked the path of being a “different festival” that is defined by the experience that its public lives. The opening day on Wednesday brought together 12,000 people, on Thursday 16,000 people, on Friday 25,000 visitors were reached and this Saturday 23,000 people were expected.
Herreruela has recognized that one of the pending subjects of the festival is improve mobility in public transport. The director of the festival has admitted that there has been a problem due to several works that are being carried out on the metro line and on the Tram. “Cruïlla cannot solve it alone, especially when the works are announced with such a short margin of time”, he criticized. In this sense, he explained that the night metro service was working this Saturday but it was not on the nights of Thursday and Friday. He has also lamented the lack of taxi drivers in the area at a large format event. In addition, the works on the tram and metro line 4 have made it extremely difficult for both attendees and residents of the area to travel. The special buses have not served to cover the existing demand.
Public of all kinds
Without any willingness to compare attendance figures with past editions, Herreruela has pointed out that the format has been “found” with a Friday and a Saturday that are “at the limit of where we can be” and a Wednesday and a Thursday that experience a “quiet growth“. “We are consolidating the idea of a day on Wednesday for young audiences, as a gateway to the festival. We are in love with what happened on Thursday with the way of making community “, he has valued.
In 2023, 49% of the public were women, 48% men and 3% non-binary. 61% of the attendees were people residing in the city of Barcelona, 29% from the demarcation of Barcelona, 7% from all of Catalonia and 3% from the rest of the State. The percentage of international public is below 1%. Cruïlla’s majority audience is between 30 and 40 years old, 47% of attendees. Those over 40 years old represent 35% of the public and between 25 and 30 years old it is 10%. Only 8% of attendees are under 25 years of age.
many repeaters
Herreruela has chested out that 51% of the public is a repeater of other editions. “We had always dreamed of that, to have continuity with the public,” he said. The Cruïlla director assured that the festival is defined by the experience it generates among its audience. “The feeling of the festival is differential and we like that this defines us,” he said.
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4,000 workers have made possible the celebration of the 2023 edition of Cruïlla. The edition has not presented outstanding incidents and has been characterized by the “civic spirit” of the attendees.
Regarding the commitment to sustainability, they explained that it was the first time that a festival has not been powered by generators but has used the city’s usual electrical network. “We have stopped consuming 13,000 liters of diesel and emitting 36,000 kilos of CO2”, he specified. In fact, according to the festival, electricity consumption has been the equivalent of 350 homes and a commitment to renewable energy has been defended. “We open the doors of a new trend, it will be very difficult for other festivals not to follow it”, he pointed out.