FolkWorld #52 11/2013
© Pío Fernández

Folk Music Festivals: Spain in 2013

In early 2012, a previous FolkWorld article presented a list of folk, traditional, world & Celtic music festivals that have been regularly taking place in Spain during the last years.[47] The subject was introduced with a description of the profound economical crisis that the country has suffered since 2008, and how that could substantially diminish the budgets for these musical events in the future. The summer of 2013 is over now and the good news are: despite the ongoing recession lots of folk music festivals still go on all over Spain, although with some reductions in several cases.

In the Fog

Anxo Lorenzo

Anxo Lorenzo @ FolkWorld:
FW#42, #42, #46, #49

www.myspace.com | www.youtube.com

www.anxolorenzo.com

Eoghan Neff @ FolkWorld:
FW#27, #46, #50, #50

myspace.com | youtube.com

www.eoghanneff.com

Austerity: Back in 2011, after the landslide victory of the right wing Partido Popular in Spain’s national elections, their conservative government has established strong budget reductions on a lot of public services and institutions, as well as a generalised raise of taxes. Such measurements are aiming to reduce Spain’s national debt, and they may be in line with the guidelines enforced by the European political & financial centres. But so far, these have not so visibly helped to restore economical growth, except for some increase on the export of goods, now with more competitive prices due to some reduction on labour costs.

Employment: A deep historical deficiency in the development of a sufficiently broad industrial economy, still keeps Spain highly dependent on sectors such as: tourism, agriculture, or the (now staggering) housing industry. There are a few competitive technological corporations, and the general industries are insufficient to provide jobs to a large number of unemployed people of all ages.

Al Andaluz Project

Al Andaluz Project @ FolkWorld:
FW#42, #43, #47, #48, #48, #52

myspace.com | youtube.com

www.alandaluzproject.de

Mara Aranda @ FolkWorld:
FW#14, #27, #35, #39, #52

myspace.com | youtube.com

www.mara-aranda.com

Back in early 2012, we mentioned that Spain’s climbing unemployment reached a peak of 23%. But in mid 2013 it jumped to a new record of 27.2%, with some debatable signs that it might have reached some sort of ceiling. An unemployment rate of almost 50% suffered by the younger part of the population, is pushing them to leave the country in all directions, even more to those with a higher level of scientific or technical education.

Leadership: The general discontent of the Spanish population has progressively increased in 2012 & 2013, and the credibility of the ruling Partido Popular has steadily gone down. This is not just because their policies have been in clear contradiction with many of their promises from the 2011 election campaign, and the alleged signs of recovery in the economy & employment are not yet tangible for most of the Spaniards.

On top of that, concerning cases of corruption & illegal founding are under investigation, affecting both main political parties (right & left wing), and other top institutions.

Back to the Info on Folk Music Festivals

But the fact is that despite the current hardship and the financial difficulties to organize and promote folk music festivals, there is still momentum left. In many places, the local authorities wisely consider these events as valuable touristic attractions. Therefore, luckily a majority of those festivals have taken place already in 2013. Our hope is that such remaining inertia will help most of these to continue in following years, until some clear recovery of the Spanish economy starts taking place.

The festival's list presented in the previous 2012 article was quite exhaustive and it included a total of 67 events taking place in all parts of Spain.[47] Nevertheless, at least another 34 were missing, and these are now listed below grouped under each of Spain’s autonomous communities.

Most of the data compiled in these lists of 2013 folk festivals was gathered from Spanish resources such as:

INTERNACIONAL DE CANTE DE POETAS

www.cantedepoetas.com

As it frequently happens, some of the links to the festival’s web pages may get obsolete. An internet search typing the festival’s name & location might help you to find out their latest site for the corresponding year. In some cases you will realize that at some point in time the festival’s annual editions just stopped taking place, probably because of the kind of budget difficulties mentioned above.

ANDALUCÍA

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE CANTE DE POETAS

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE MÚSICA SEFARDÍ

DE LA GUITARRA DE CÓRDOBA

www.guitarracordoba.org

Festival: DE LA GUITARRA DE CÓRDOBA

Festival: FOLK POZOBLANCO

Festival: TERRAL

ARAGÓN

INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE JAMINFEST

www.jaminfest.com

Festival: IBERI@HUESCA.FOLK

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE JAMINFEST

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE PERCUSIÓN DE LOS PIRINEOS / FIP

Festival: DE MÚSICA Y CULTURA PIRENAICAS / PIR

DE MÚSICA Y CULTURA PIRENAICAS / PIR

festivalesdehuesca.es

Festival: MUSICA TRADICIONAL DE MONREAL DEL CAMPO

ASTURIES / ASTURIAS

Festival: FOLIXA NA PRIMAVERA

Festival: UNIVERSO FOLK

TIERRADURA FOLK

www.facebook.com/t...

ISLAS CANARIAS

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE VILLA DE INGENIO

CANTABRIA

Festival: SAN JUAN FOLK

CASTILLA FOLK

www.aytoburgos.es/c...

Festival: TIERRADURA FOLK

CASTILLA Y LEÓN

Festival: ALMUENZA FOLK

Festival: BENAVENTE FOLK

DANZAS SIN FRONTERAS

www.danzasinfronteras...

Festival: CASTILLA FOLK

Festival: CRISOL DE CUERDA TRADICIONAL

Festival: FIESTA DEL PANDERO CUADRADO

INTERNACIONAL DE LA SIERRA / FIS

www.festisierra.com

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE CIUDAD DE BURGOS

CASTILLA – LA MANCHA

Festival: DANZAS SIN FRONTERAS

CATALUNYA / CATALUÑA

Festival: TRADICIONARIUS / CAT (CENTRE ARTESÀ TRADICIONÀRIUS)

EUSKADI / PAÍS VASCO

Festival: MENDEBALA

Festival: SOINUENEA. CICLO ANUAL DE CONCIERTOS

EXTREMADURA

JORNADA DE MÚSICA Y TRADICIONES DE BRAOJOS DE LA SIERRA

Festival: ESTIVALIA FOLK

Festival: FOLK CÁCERES TRÁNSITOS

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE LA SIERRA / FIS

GALICIA

FIESTA DE LAS CUADRILLAS DE BARRANDA / BARRANDA FOLK

fiestadelascuadrillas...

Festival: FESTA FOLC DE VILARIÑO

Festival: REPERKUSIÓN

MADRID

Festival: JORNADA DE MÚSICA Y TRADICIONES DE BRAOJOS DE LA SIERRA

INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE EN EL SEGURA

www.facebook.com/X...

Festival: FOLK TRÁNSITOS GALILEO

MURCIA

Festival: FIESTA DE LAS CUADRILLAS DE BARRANDA / BARRANDA FOLK

Festival: INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE EN EL SEGURA

MURCIA TRES CULTURAS

www.murcia.es/D...

Festival: MURCIA TRES CULTURAS



Photo Credits:
(1) Anxo Lorenzo (by Sue Wolfe);
(2) Al Andaluz Project (unknown/website);
Posters/Logos:
(3) INTERNACIONAL DE CANTE DE POETAS,
(4) DE LA GUITARRA DE CÓRDOBA,
(5) INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE JAMINFEST,
(6) DE MÚSICA Y CULTURA PIRENAICAS / PIR,
(7) TIERRADURA FOLK,
(8) CASTILLA FOLK,
(9) DANZAS SIN FRONTERAS,
(10) INTERNACIONAL DE LA SIERRA / FIS,
(11) FESTA FOLC DE VILARIÑO,
(12) JORNADA DE MÚSICA Y TRADICIONES DE BRAOJOS DE LA SIERRA,
(13) FIESTA DE LAS CUADRILLAS DE BARRANDA / BARRANDA FOLK,
(14) INTERNACIONAL DE FOLKLORE EN EL SEGURA,
(15) MURCIA TRES CULTURAS (unknown/websites).


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