PACO LÓPEZ, DIRECTOR OF THE FESTIVAL DE JEREZ. INTERVIEW

“We're ungrateful to the people that make flamenco
grow, people who invest their time and money in
learning this artform that fuels their passion”

Silvia Calado. Jerez, 5th March 2006

Festival de Jerez celebrates its tenth anniversary reviewing forty years of flamenco dance. And it's a good time to take stock and think about the future. Paco López, director of the Jerez festival, looks back with the satisfaction of having met his objectives, and looks forward with an insatiable urge to continue encouraging the growth of this key event on the annual flamenco calendar, which specializes in baile. Thousands of people from all over the world have put Jerez on the map. It's a welcoming, authentic city that offers the most wide-ranging and accessible program of flamenco, both in terms of shows and of training courses. To add to this, it has an excellent geographical location, many tourist attractions and a vibrant flamenco scene kept alive at natural venues such as peñas and tabernas. Ample reason for the Festival de Jerez to continue to grow.

	Paco López (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

What does the tenth edition of the Festival de Jerez hold in store?

In terms of both the philosophy behind the program and what we've seen so far, the 2006 Festival de Jerez aims to present an overview of how baile flamenco and Spanish dance have shaped up over the last forty years. What kind of state of health they're in, the legacy they've inherited - bringing back ‘Diálogo del Amargo’ by Mario Maya and Merche Esmeralda's dance - how relevant they are today... To make clear the obvious truth that flamenco is an artform that's alive and well, in a state of expansion, with fuzzy edges that are redefined each day, with the latest creative offerings of the artists.

This anniversary edition includes a few surprises...

We try to tread with caution when it comes to change. The festival's approach is the coexistence between shows, courses and its role as a meeting place. There's a need for the festival to grow, although we want to continue making an intense but manageable festival, with a circuit of daily activities that can feasibly be followed... if you can handle the pace. The festival has grown in length and in size for three reasons. The first, because of the Teatro Villamarta itself, which for many years couldn't host a première because of production requirements. This year, out of the sixteen days, two have been left blank so that the companies of Sara Baras and Aida Gómez can set up their large-scale shows. The second is that we don't want to race ahead and in a couple of years face the chaos of being a festival with no tickets available. It could be negative if people get that idea. And third, students coming to experience the festival ask us to cut down the number of hours of classes each day so they can enjoy the rest of the activities. You can already see the effect in the increase in student numbers: 860 in total this year, compared with 740 from last year. And in an increase of 20 per cent in attendance rates.

How do you manage to balance the highly international nature of the audience with the attendance of the local crowd?

The festival is a project that gives the city a name; it isn't some spiritual enclave of flamenco. And you have to make it as attractive as possible to people from all over the world. We're ungrateful to the people that make flamenco grow, people who invest their time and money in learning this artform that fuels their passion. Is a fratricidal trend. There's no artform where the people that make you feel alive are regarded as negative. The festival is doing a job that perhaps isn't evident on the surface, but which allows the profession to grow with it. The festival is good news for artists from Jerez - it's helping them to develop and grow. Besides, we get a lot of organizers and booking agents here - it's a marketplace. We're not a première-oriented festival, but the people looking to make bookings for their venues go away with their needs more than satisfied. It isn't a trade fair, but there are those who come here looking to spend money.

Paco López (Photo: Daniel Muñoz)

Looking back, how would you weigh up these ten first years?

The festival is the strongest, most stable project of the Teatro Villamarta Foundation. It's overcome some financial worries due to the lack of other bodies helping with the budget. Even so, the festival continues to grow exponentially. It's a setup that generates enough revenue to cover costs, so there's an internal balance - unlike the opera which costs more than it can raise. It's a project that's been very carefully thought through, bringing huge advantages to this city. It helps to create a modern, unique vision of Jerez. It's a very well-rounded festival from the design point of view. There's no danger that its growth will lead to its disappearance or cutbacks.

What challenges does the festival set itself for the future?

Internally, to bring back our own self-produced projects and get them up and running - just like with opera, to make investments worthwhile. We've taken the initiative to try and restore the choreographic event, to give an incentive to the companies, and because it's absolutely necessary to work together as a team. The area in need of development is the complementary activities, and to bring the festival closer to the profession, to the cultural sector. We have a marvelous product, which is unique, but we aren't capable of developing a industry. The festival feels it has an obligation to contribute ideas, initiatives. And also we have to try to convince Jerez that the festival isn't something that happens for fifteen days, but create an infrastructure that's working both during and after the festival. Similar-sized cities with festivals such as Salzburg and Avignon have managed to create an entire industry where the festival is the tip of the iceberg. We want Jerez to respond.

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