The Seville Biennial Flamenco Festival holds its fourth contest for young artists

The prize includes an eight-date tour of Andalucia

Flamenco-world.com

With the conviction that "it is with young people where the hopes for the future of flamenco lie", the 12th Seville Biennial Flamenco Festival is holding its fourth contest for aspiring young flamenco artists. The competition, which is being supported by the Andalucian Youth Institute and whose closing date for inscriptions is 15 April 2002, is looking for three new rising stars of cante, toque and baile. As well as a trophy the winners will take home 10,000 Euros for an eight-date tour of Andalucia. The singer Laura Vital, the guitarist Santiago Lara and the dancer Andrés Peña, who were winners of the last edition, will make way for the new winners in a gala award ceremony during the upcoming festival.

Laura Vital, winner of the
Third contest for young artists

The headquarters of the Seville Biennial Festival and branches of the Andalucian Youth Institute are now accepting applications from flamenco artists under the age of 30 for the three catagories of cante, toque and baile in the fourth contest for young flamenco artists. After the inscription date has expired a jury "composed of leading figures from the world of flamenco", will select eight competitors for each section for the semifinal stage.

The organizers will then choose three Andalucian cities that will host the performances of the semifinalists before June 15, with four artists from each category reaching the final. The program for the 12th Seville Biennial Festival includes the finals of the contest, in which the three winners of the 'Premios Bienal Joven 2002' will be announced. Part of the bill includes a gala award ceremony similar to the held in the last edition in which the singer Laura Vital, the guitarist Santiago Lara and the dancer Andrés Peña were part of a controversial night at Seville's Lope de Vega on October 5 2000.

Melchora Ortega, winner of the
Second contest for young artists

Andalucian Tour

From then on the winners will show off their skills in each of the Andalucian provinces in an eight-date tour for which each artist will receive 7,000 Euros. Added to this they will be given 3,000 Euros in cash, a trophy and a record which will later be produced by the organizers as they have done in each contest since 1998, when the winners were the singer Melchora Ortega, the guitarist Paco Javier Jimeno and the dancer Rafael de Carmen.

The Biennial is hoping to improve upon the figures registered at the third contest, in which 150 young people - 90% of whom were Andalucians - took part and when a total of 4,000 spectators witnessed the tour in towns such as Armilla (Granada), Puente Genil (Córdoba), Úbeda (Jaén), Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), Lepe (Huelva) and Antequera (Málaga).

e-mail: bienal@eintec.es