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2003 MONT DE MARSAN FLAMENCO
ART FESTIVAL
Against All Inclemencies
Candela Olivo. Mont de Marsan (France), July 5th, 2003
Caseta de Feria (Fair Stall). 'Por lo bajini': Marchena
on cante; Jaime de los Santos on guitar; Patricia Baeza, Rocío Baeza, Marcos
Jiménez and Jesús Ortega on baile; with the collaboration of the
Giralda Ballet. Fiesta en Triana (Party in Triana). The Fernández
Family. Curro Fernández, Pepa Vargas, Bolita on cante; Antonio Moya and
Eugenio Iglesias on guitar; Joselito Fernández on baile. Closing dinner.
Hall de Nahuques. Mont de Marsan (France), July 5th, 2003. 7:30 p.m.
Fernández family
Each and every performance at the fifteenth Mont de Marsan Festival has been
preceded by a voice in off reminding us that without the work of the light technicians,
sound technicians, stagehands, stage designers, stage managers... (as well as
the audience), the culture's survival would be unfeasible. The repetition of this
message had a reason. The union is on strike throughout France, demanding an improvement
in their work conditions. And that has caused festivals such as that of Marseilles,
where performances by María
Pagés and Dorantes were scheduled, to be postponed.
The fact that the 2003 Mont de Marsan Flamenco Art Festival has gone forward
is a praiseworthy deference by these professionals, who wanted to respect the
importance that this date with the jondo genre has for the entire region
of the Landes - and beyond. They only reserved the closing dinner party to express
their claims. And thanks to both the generous, collaborating disposition of the
artists called to put the finishing touch on these six days of flamenco, and the
temperance and solidarity of the organization, the scheduled performances were
able to be performed without sound and without lighting. Bearing in mind the coldness
and the huge dimensions of the venue - similar to a hangar -, it deserved hats
off.
Even before dessert had been served, the Sevillian group 'Por lo bajini', accompanied
by the Giralda Ballet, brought the spirit of Seville's April Fair to the packed
Hall de Nahuques. The way to counteract the inclemencies was to create a sort
of strolling stall, which took rumbas and sevillanas to different points in the
hall. You can bring water to the horse if you can't lead it... The complicity
between the audience and artists was now achieved. The festival's artistic director,
Javier Puga, shouted his head off from one end of the premises to the other to
invite everyone to take their seat and their glass and get as close as they wanted
to the stage. And so, with the ambience as warm as possible, the Fernández
Family was welcomed. Conscious of the situation, Curro Fernández - the
father of Esperanza Fernández - took over as a perfect host (even asking
his own to applaud those attending) and gave out kindness in the shape of cante
and baile. With soleares sprinkled with the candy of the kid Bolita's voice, the
bulerías with a Lebrija flavor, the alegrías which Joselito
Fernández danced and the farewell through tangos with the fair group,
the Fernández Family achieved the impossible: to make their sincerest artistic
expression reach every corner without technical intermediation. And in passing,
the inclemency became a milestone, since there have been few occasions in this
twenty-first century now under way in which flamenco can be savored with proximity
of the past. It happened in the year 2003 in Mont de Marsan, a city where the
respect and love towards the Andalusian art exceeds the imaginable.
'Por lo bajini' singing and dancing sevillanas
magazine@flamenco-world.com
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