The Second World Flamenco Fair in Seville will bring together around one hundred
businesses related to the art-form
The fair for professionals,
which will be held between October 3-6 and will coincide with the biennial festival,
is aiming to be a meeting place for international promoters
Flamenco-world.com
Flamenco is demonstrating that as well
as being an art it is a valuable generator of business. The second World Flamenco
Fair, which will take place in Seville between October 3-6, 2002 during the final
stages of the biennial festival, will bring together around a hundred exhibitors,
some 20% more than the first edition. Included amongst the exhibitors will be
manufacturers, guitar makers, record companies, managers... With the aim of turning
itself into an unmissable event for those involved in the international flamenco
market, the fair will have a strong foreign presence in tourism - the publicly-owned
company Turismo Andaluz has invited over fifty professionals - and promotion.
To achieve this the promoter Comercializadora de Productos Andaluces (CdeA) has
arranged a special commercial plan, and Fibes, the body that manages the Seville
congress centre and organises the fair, has designed an expansion plan with the
singer and producer Pepe de Lucía as ambassador.
The World Flamenco Fair approaches its second
edition with plenty of signs of growth. In 2001, when the event was inaugurated,
there were 78 exhibitors in the Seville Congress Centre, this year the number
of businesses has reached around the one hundred mark. Exhibitors include manufacturers
of professional material, guitar makers, lighting and sound companies, fashion
and accessory labels, record companies, representative agencies, academies and
publishers. Boosted by the fact that it coincides with the biennial festival,
the fair hopes to attract more than the 15,000 visitors that came last year.
The organisers of the event want to appeal
to visiting professionals, who last year amounted to 2,000 of the total visitors.
With the aim of making international promoters aware of what flamenco can offer,
the fair has chosen Pepe de Lucía to be in charge of pin-pointing the worldwide
demand. Other bodies are in charge of expanding the business event on a global
basis. The public company CdeA has designed a commercial plan targeted at promoters,
and Turismo Andaluz, the promotional of the Andalucian tourist office, will open
up a special flamenco tourism market which fifty professionals will attend.
The fair precinct is already making preparations
to receive the flamenco industry. As well as a pavilion that will house the stands,
Fibes will also make available other installations where presentations, press
conferences, exhibitions, fashion shows and night-time performances will be held.
The programme will be completed by conferences, seminars and technical classes.
Everything has been designed with the aim of "promoting and encouraging the
commercial relations that surround flamenco on both a national and international
scale".
Application
for accreditation as a profesional
