The founder of the Marbella festival will host the Starlite Gala together with Antonio Banderas
Starlite exceeds ten years of life as one of the essential events of the summer in Marbella. National and international artists of the stature of C Tangana, Christina Aguilera, Raphael, Mónica Naranjo, Gloria Trevi, Maluma, Malú, Pablo Alborán, Sebastián Yatra or Vanessa Martin.
One of the most special appointments will be next Sunday, August 14. That night will be the Gala Starlite Porcelanosaa charity event in which Antonio Banderas will return to serve as host with Sandra Garcia-Sanjuan. YOTELE has spoken with the founder of the festival, who only has positive words for one of our most international actors: “He has always supported us and pushed us, he has believed a lot in the project and has given us great visibility.”
Garcia-Sanjuan also takes stock of the first ten years of Starlite’s life, which will be reflected in a documentary. “It tells the story of where we started and everything we’ve been through, the moments of difficulty, the obstacles. All of that goes hand in hand with success,” she says in the interview.
What balance do you make of what you wear to the festival? There is still a long way to go…
It’s crazy. It’s going great, we do more sold out than ever and we are very happy. People want to share, enjoy, get excited again and live. That is a joy for everyone.
What is the big news this year compared to the previous ones?
We come from a pandemic and I think there is more enthusiasm than ever. That has given us a very large competitive advantage and a lot of credibility. The Starlite brand is so powerful that it allows us to hold a festival that lasts three months, a quarter of a year, something that seems unthinkable. It is a destination in itself. From what we see, many people organize their trips and their holidays in Marbella based on our poster. We have also attached great importance to the issue of sustainability.
It must be difficult to maintain the level of every year and even improve.
Our goal is to reinvent ourselves and continue surprising. When you have a clientele that comes every year and not just one day, but many nights, surprising them again so that they find something different is not achieved only with the poster. We must go further. It is achieved, for example, with decoration. This year our obsession was to turn the space into an oasis full of vegetation.
The Starlite Gala is celebrated on August 14. What can you tell us about this appointment? One of the guests will be Richard Gere…
I have always greatly admired Richard Gere, and he will also come with Alejandra. There will also be Andrea Bocelli, Paloma Cuevas, Victoria Federica… A lot of people will come.
Who are you most excited to attend?
I love everyone. I love continuing to act as a hostess with Antonio Banderas, he is a great friend and I love him very much. We have made this great together, he has been a great godfather. He has always supported us and pushed us, he has believed a lot in the project and has given us great visibility.
Andrea Bocelli is also a classic. I’m very excited that old friends come like Ainhoa Arteta or Ana Obregón, Paloma Cuevas… There are people who are the history of the Starlite foundation. We are very grateful that you will be with us.
Starlite is one of the great appointments of celebrities… Is it an important pillar for the brand?
In the end, the festival has become a meeting point for stars, celebrities, artists and businessmen. That is part of its essence, but it is also a very familiar place. Parents, children, grandparents come… At Starlite that is normal, you find them all together because there is a very healthy environment.
Beyond the working relationship with the artists, have you also established friendships with them?
I have been working with artists since I was 20 years old. When you travel or share different projects with them… In the end, a very powerful personal relationship is generated that goes far beyond work. The essence of the person is discovered, which is the most fascinating. The character is being created, but it is brutal to be able to meet people, to know what they feel.
The documentary about the tenth anniversary of Starlite was also released recently… How has it been working on this project?
We are going to present it in Madrid in September and a lot of people are going to go, it is going to be spectacular. It tells the story of where we started and everything we’ve been through, the moments of difficulty, the obstacles… All of this is seen in parallel with success. It has given us wings and security, if everything had been very easy, surely we would not be where we are. We are here because of all those difficulties that we encounter along the way.
Looking back, how do you remember the first year of Starlite? Was it difficult to get him out front?
The first year was very hard, I thought we were not going to get ahead. There it was my husband who was clear that we had to continue. I didn’t want to go through that again. In addition, we bet very hard and mortgaged everything we had. I thought we stayed on the street. After the success, we were broke. There were two options, not to do it anymore and spend a lifetime paying for the losses, or turn it into an investment and turn the tables.
And very complicated they also had to be those of 2020 and 2021 with the pandemic…
In 2020 we did it in the midst of a pandemic after my husband had been hospitalized for a month. He almost died, he spent three months on oxygen at home, so imagine the scenario. He was the first that he said we had to do it. Unless we were prohibited by law, we were clear that we were going forward. It was very complicated, in 2020 we kept spending and income was greatly reduced. We had to reduce the capacity and there were no nights either, we didn’t have an international public either, who are the ones who leave the most money. It was a very difficult year.
Atresmedia is your media partner this year. How do you value that joint work and the television coverage of the festival?
We have been on television since the second year of the festival. We spent three years with Mediaset, who took care of us and treated us phenomenally, and now we have been with the Atresmedia group for six years. It has been very positive and it is being fantastic, we are grateful to all the press because it gives us incredible visibility.
Is there an artist that you want to have in Starlite and has not been able to attend yet?
I would say that at this point almost everyone we have wanted has passed through Starlite. Paco de Lucía was brutal, it was his last concert in Spain. I also wanted Elton John to come because he’s a living music legend, and we’ve also had Lenny Kravitz and Andrea Bocelli, who’s come almost every year. Julio Iglesias, Ricky Martin… We started very strong from the first year. Now we seek to create unique and special moments.