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SPECIAL FEATURES: World Flamenco
Fair and Womex 2003
Another step forward
Silvia Calado Olivo. Seville, October 2003
Photos: Daniel Muñoz
Resounding box-drum beats, Bernarda de Utrera's cantes through soleá,
small groups of fans following Antonio
Canales, the 'furruquitera' crowd, the latest trends in fashion with frills,
greetings, clapping, rendezvous, portions of mixed fried food... and meanwhile,
business. Agents from the flamenco 'industry' gathered for the third consecutive
year at Seville's Convention Center. Four days - from October 23rd to 26th - which
once again tested the entrepreneurial capacities of the jondo art. Added in this
edition to the value which the World Flamenco Fair enjoys as a meeting point where
contacts are created and renewed, is the parallel holding of Womex. And that gave
the flamenco business world not only a professional reference to reflect upon,
but also the opportunity to offer flamenco directly to the planners and publishers
of world musics. The consolidation of the flamenco economy takes another step
forward. There is still a long way to go...
Guadiana and Jesús de Rosario
The one hundred twenty exhibitors and professional visitors who showed up at
the showcase of the 2003 World Flamenco Fair had another opportunity to get together.
According to majority opinion, the contact between suppliers and dealers, representatives
and planners, sales people and customers, supply and demand, is the most positive
side of this business gathering. That is how it was seen, for example, by the
manufacturer of Begoña
Cervera dance shoes, who considers that "being here makes it easier both
for me to meet with my customers face to face, which isn't usually easy due to
the geographical distances that separate us, and to get more customers. In fact,
our models - represented by Eva Yerbabuena and dealt on the Internet by Flamenco-world.com-,
have interested top dance figures these days such as María Pagés
and Javier Latorre". It seems to be just a question of time for these contacts
to materialize into business. As Lucía Vela, who currently heads the veteran
workshop of Filigrana
castanets, remarked, "now you have to wait for them to study the catalogue
for us to get future orders".
Another thing is how things were weighed up by those who, like Flamenco-world.com,
also worked on the other side of the wall, in Womex, the German fair of world
musics which, for the first time in its nine-year history, was held in Spain.
In the opinion of Daniel Muñoz, director of Flamenco-world.com, the main
benefit of working at Womex is having had "access to all the real contacts
of sectors that deal in world musics". Moreover, he explains that he has
managed to "study a new market and see new ways of working, in order to carry
out our aim, as international dealers of flamenco products and an online management
agency, of trying to bring flamenco nearer to the movement of world music, quite
more organized and advanced than that of flamenco".
In contrast, the shortcomings of the flamenco 'industry' became more patent
in this edition. To start with, notable absences stood out upon going through
the list of exhibitors. And the thing is, as some 'absentees' consulted comment,
this fair is guilty of excessive localism and is bogged down by the weight of
the public. The writer adds that missing is machinery to bring together the companies
which make the effort to attend this gathering - since most of them are small
companies, it is in fact an economic effort -, as well as a real, convincing presence
of international purchasers. This last aspect was fortunately compensated in this
edition for coinciding with Womex. And praiseworthy is the effort of Fibes, Bienal
de Sevilla and the public promotion company Andalusian Tourism for bringing this
fair to Seville.
Moraíto |
Carmen Cortés |
Marina Heredia |
All those accredited to the world music fair had access to the Flamenco Fair,
but that flow was not known how to be channeled. And that gave rise to many outside
music agents leaving with a merely folkloric impression, in the most negative
sense of the word. The flamenco costumes on display at the pavilion entrance,
the exuberance of the restaurant section and the extensive area occupied by peñas
and local and provincial public institutions played against it, more so if compared
to the austerity of Womex. The flamenco showcases scheduled throughout each day
partly mitigated said handicap. Some of them, especially that of the group Ojos
de Brujo, that of Diego Carrasco, that of Dorantes in the inauguration, the
preview of 'Inmigración', which will be the first show by the Ángeles
Gabaldón Company, and that of the flamenco jazz show 'Cruce de caminos'
- joining on stage Gerardo
Núñez, Carmen Cortés, Rafael de Utrera, Perico Sambeat,
Cepillo, Pablo Martín and Mariano Díaz - sent vibrations to an international
crowd which did not hesitate to jot down or have jotted down the name of the show
in question. You could already smell the future contracts. The rest of the scheduled
performances fulfilled the function of livening up the fair days more than as
displays with a commercial purpose, which is not contemptible, since the public
are, after all, the ones who have the last word... Standing out amidst the record
presentations is that of cantaor El
Lebrijano and, for the quality of the offer, that of guitarist Juan Diego's
début. The fair was not especially noteworthy in this regard. Also missing
were the flamenco fashion shows of previous editions.
Continues
>>
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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