SPECIAL FEATURE. SUMMER FLAMENCO FESTIVALS

Cante, the night and the people

Flamenco festival agenda. Summer 2007

S.C., June 2007

Even though after half a century of history the generalist Spanish media still leave out the phenomenon when informing on the summer music season, the truth is that flamenco festivals have to be duly highlighted on the cultural scene. According to data from the latest SGAE annual, in 2005 over two million spectators attended these events, second by genre after pop rock. Traditional ones like Potaje de Utrera, La Caracolá de Lebrija, Festival del Cante de las Minas, Torre del Cante de Alhaurín and Fiesta de la Bulería; new ones like Madrid’s Flamenco Pa’Tos, Barcelona’s De Cajón! and Huelva’s El Quitasueños; series included in programs of other genres like Festival Grec or the Granada Music and Dance Festival; foreign ones such as the Mont de Marsan Festival in France and the Alburquerque Festival in the United States; and macrofestivals like Bienal de Sevilla or Málaga en Flamenco, fill up the summer agenda with cante, toque and baile.

2005 Festival de Cante Jondo Antonio Mairena's poster

Half a century of history. Flamenco festivals were born in the fifties on the wings of the revaluation movement which bequeathed contests, institutes, peñas and anthologies. Organized by city halls, fan associations and even religious brotherhoods, initially in summer, at outdoor venues with free admission and many with an attached contest, they caused “flamenco to be brought closer to the masses”, according to the definition stated in the Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary of Flamenco. And proof of it is that currently, according to the 2005 SGAE Annual, there are a total of 2,055,098 spectators, which means 8.8% of the total of music festivals held annually in Spain. And that translates into flamenco taking up second place in audience after pop-rock. Now then, at afar, since pop-rock has 46.3% of the total.

EVOLUTION OF THE NUMBER OF SPECTATORS AT FLAMENCO FESTIVALS

Source: 2005 SGAE Annual

Potaje de Utrera's photo album

There is a clear reason for the origins of the phenomenon. As José Manuel Gamboa explains in ‘Una historia del flamenco’, “the good intentions guiding the ideologists of the tablaos in their aim to put genuine flamenco at everyone’s reach didn’t satisfy the more traditional enthusiasts. They were seeking something else, pure hard cante, and the festivals gave it to them”. And to duly illustrate it, he recovers a few statements by the main promoter of those first festivals: “On the TV program ‘Rito y geografía del cante’, Pulpón, who was the flamenco representative par excellence, lord and master of the festival line-ups, explained the reason why the Andalusian summer festivals prospered:

It was surely due to the decline of the folk shows which had been so usual some years before. And also because cante, which was making its way amongst enthusiasts, once again experienced a boom it’d had years before at those singing cafés. They’re organized according to the festival commissions which assess the enthusiasts of each place where the festival is held. They propose some names to the commission which they consider ideal for their town’s festival, and the bill is put together according to this. Generally, certain top figures are counted on, and then they stick in some cantaores of interest in the town, and some baile numbers”.

The thing is that flamenco then returned to towns in the region of Andalusia such as the Seville-area town of Utrera, where El Potaje, the granddaddy of all the festivals, is now 50 years old. In 1962 the first edition of the Antonio Mairena Cante Jondo Festival was held, Lebrija’s La Caracolá is now on its 42nd bill, one more than Morón’s Gazpacho. Already with four decades behind it is Jerez’s Fiesta de la Bulería, just like Festival de la Mistela in the Seville-area town of Los Palacios, thirty-four years old is Festival Torre del Cante in the Málaga-area town of Alhaurín de la Torre, thirty that of Castilblanco de los Arroyos, a quarter of a century Festival Juan Talega de Dos Hermanas... And so on all over Andalusia, where over two hundred events are held throughout the summer season. Of course since it’s an odd-numbered year, we have to add in September the macrofestival Málaga en Flamenco 2007 and in even-numbered years its reference, Seville’s Bienal, which nearly deserves a separate report due to its magnitude.

Aurora Vargas and Diego Amaya on Festival de la Mistela 2006
(Photo Festival de la Mistela)

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