What is hidden behind the success of a flamenco festival? With the help of Javier del Carmen, Director of the Universal Flamenco Festival of Mérida, we discover how a successful contest is organized.
As soon as this interview begins, the Extremaduran Javier del Carmen already tells us one of the keys to the success of the Festival he directs, Flamenco Universal, which begins this October 21 in Mérida. “I don’t like to talk about my work at this festival. We are a team and we are all important.”
This passionate about flamenco art organizes an appointment with great figures of singing, dancing and playing in, no less, than the monumental and regal Mérida. There is thus a wonderful circumstance: a World Heritage city is the scene of a music also World Heritage. Could this marriage be more “perfect”?
With it we delve into the ins and outs of this successful event and know the keys that influence a festival to work… or not.
During the presentation of the 2023 festival, it was announced that ALL FLAMENCO is the multiplatform channel chosen for the international expansion of the contest.
1 “Having experience is essential”
That’s how categorical the director of Flamenco Universal is. Javier del Carmen and his team have not been in charge of this event by chance. “We are a group of professionals who have extensive experience in cultural projects, most of them related to music. In the specific case of flamenco, one of our main tasks as a company is consulting families or foundations that want to preserve and promote the legacy of legends of this art. Give them strategies so that this heritage is not lost, to value their legacy in front of the next generations”.
2 “If you set up a flamenco festival, you must like flamenco”
The love for flamenco is what can differentiate one festival from another. Javier thinks that he cannot and should not miss that passion for what you do and, more, when something as powerful internationally as this Universal Flamenco is organized. “I would say that we are all frustrated artists,” says the director of the emeritense contest with a smile. “So we took this meeting with flamenco greats intensely and personally.”
“It is exciting to share a talk in the privacy of the dressing rooms with the teachers”, says with emotion the director of a festival that is born from the affection for flamenco.
“There are many festivals or events around flamenco that do not take care of aspects such as creativity, design or artistic direction. We want all this, precisely, to be part of ours, “says Javier del Carmen
It’s not about “inventing the wheel suddenly,” says Javier. In this case, he talks about finding that personality that makes a festival like this one in Mérida not “one more”.
“That Mérida, a World Heritage City since 1993, hosts this event is a great luck. It achieves, among other things, that attending a Flamenco Universal concert has the plus we are looking for: to live a whole cultural, artistic, not only musical experience”.
Del Carmen also focuses on another aspect of this encounter with flamenco. “We want it to be the home of all disciplines. Maybe the cajón of El Piraña cannot have a recital of its own, but it is, it is”.
3 “You have to differentiate yourself”
The local flamenco, of course, has its place. The cantaor Juan Cantero is the protagonist of this edition and the Universal Flamenco Award.
Antonio Rodríguez Osuna, mayor of Mérida, flamenco lover and unconditional support of this festival.
4 “Institutional support is needed”
“It’s not the same in other countries. But, in Spain, the support of the public is important. In our case, for example, the City Council of Mérida is fundamental to the success of this festival”, explains Javier del Carmen.
Sometimes, it’s not so much a matter of financial aid as it is of making life easier for the organizers. Performing in places like the Temple of Diana in Mérida (where the pianist Andrés Barrios will give his free concert on October 21) is only possible with that institutional involvement.
“Mérida, as a benchmark for cultural activity throughout the country, needed a flamenco festival at the height of the quality of the cultural programming offered by the city,” said the mayor of the city, an opinion shared by our interviewee
Almost all the success of this and any festival depends on the programming of artists and activities. And it’s not easy. It must respond to the personality of the event, it has to connect with the public and, of course, “guarantee” a box office so that it can be invested in quality year after year.
Javier del Carmen sums it up like this: “It is about finding a balance between an offer that contributes, that improves the understanding of flamenco, without losing sight of the fact that the accounts have to come out. We have opted for popular prices, even with that free initial concert so that no one is excluded from the contest. But you have to cover expenses, logically, and continue to invest in giving the best.”
5 “Choosing and scheduling artists is an exciting challenge”
Getting the best to come depends on circumstances of all kinds: if they are on tour, something as simple as having the date free, their representatives or promoters …