There are more than 200 flamenco festivals in Spain alone and around 60 in the rest of the world. They are joined by those festivals that integrate flamenco as part of a wider offer. Since the 1950s, more and more competitions and recitals have been added to the list.
For many flamencologists, the Granada Competition of 1922 (the one promoted by Lorca and Falla) is the closest thing to a flamenco festival that can be found in Spanish history.
This event has in common with those that would later appear as festivals the objective of disseminating the art of flamenco, of bringing it closer to the public, of preventing it from being lost in the memory. The 1922 festival, moreover, was already a competition, a format reproduced in most festivals today.
After mentioning this first “festival”, it is the one held in Utrera, in 1955, and the one in Córdoba, in 1956, which hold the title of being the first. Antonio Fernández Díaz Fosforito won the first National Flamenco Art Competition in Cordoba. This was followed by the Cante de Las Minas (1961) and the Linares (1963)…
Short… but intense
Shorter, sometimes lasting only one day or one night, the recitals of the mid-20th century were already showing the signs of a festival and were popping up here and there. In Seville, in 1954, a meeting at a party of Manuel Bermudo, Pérez Suárez, José Muñoz Orellana and Joaquín Romero Murube led to the organisation of recitals in Triana, La Trinidad, Calle Arrayán and the Patio de Banderas in Seville. From them came the Paquera de Jerez.
The 1963 event was organised by the cantaor Antonio Mairena and held in his hometown, Mairena del Alcor. The proceeds raised were used to meet the needs of the Hermandad Sacramental and Nuestro Señor San Bartolomé. The Antonio Mairena singing festival was repeated the following year and the Town Council ended up financing it. It was not exceptional. Generally, these events relied on the financial support of local administrations and peñas..
The numerous flamenco festivals that we can enjoy today have a common origin. Do you know which one? Join us as we take a closer look at its history.
The numerous flamenco festivals that we can enjoy today have a common origin. Do you know which one? Join us as we take a closer look at its history.
The numerous flamenco festivals that we can enjoy today have a common origin. Do you know which one? Join us as we take a closer look at its history.
The numerous flamenco festivals that we can enjoy today have a common origin. Do you know which one? Join us as we take a closer look at its history.
The numerous flamenco festivals that we can enjoy today have a common origin. Do you know which one? Join us as we take a closer look at its history.
Flamenco festivals in style
In 1980, the Biennial of Seville made its appearance with dimensions in terms of duration and participation that had never been seen before. It would be the starting signal for the macro-festivals. The one in Lo Ferro also dates from 1980; the one in Jerez, from 1997; the one in Malaga, from 2005.
The rules of the game change. They manage more than one million euros in their budgets, which has forced them to look for sponsors and other funding formulas in addition to subsidies.
And with that change comes a festival fatigue that brings many events to an end. As explained in the Historia del Flamenco (History of Flamenco), and as Juan Simón Lozano writes in an essay about the 1990s, most of these competitions became boring, not very didactic and deficient in their organisation and management. Those who survived that stage would clearly emerge stronger.
Luis El Zambo in the Jerez Festival
This gypsy from Jerez is a singer on the verge of extinction, the last link in the primitive cante, capable of turning any festival upside down. This trailer is just a taste of the show you can enjoy by clicking on it.