The Alma Festival Jardins Pedralbes, the new Barcelona summer music event, has presented its list of artists that include names like Fito Páez, Chris Isaac or Goran Bregovic. The concerts will take place between July 10 and 27 at the Poble Espanyol venue, in a space that will welcome 5,000 people each evening, 500 of them in numbered locations. Tickets for this new event will go on sale this coming Thursday at 2:00 p.m., with a special pre-sale at 12:00 p.m.
In an act presented in Poble Espanyol itself, Alma has presented a poster with the majority of international artists in the absence of knowing who will star in the opening concert on July 10, a name that will be revealed in the coming days. On the 11th it will be the turn of the Argentine musician and composer Fito Páez, followed the next day by Chris Isaac, author of milestones such as Wicked Game, Blue Hotel or Somebody's Crying. On Thursday of that same week it will be the turn of New Yorker Laura Pergolizzi, better known as LP, author of the successful single Lost on you.
Other names that have joined the soul scene are the British Jacob Collier, Anastacia or the Argentine singer-songwriter Gustavo Santaolalla, winner of two Oscars for the films Brokeback Mountain and Babel. Santaolalla is also the author of the music for the series The Last of us. Soft Cell, the veteran synth-pop band behind Tainted Love, and Bosnian Goran Bregovic, a regular at Barcelona summers who will perform on the same evening as the 11 members that make up the Balkan Paradise Orchestra, will also contribute their music.
Another date to note is July 26, when the joint concert of M Clan and Seguridad Social, two leaders of Spanish rock, will take place. A double format like the one that will take place days before, on July 15, with Zahara in a rave version, and the Spanish-Italian electronic duo Delaporte, while on July 20 Los Palmeras, Chico Trujillo and Guacamayo Tropical DJ's will perform in a day called "Friend's Day" in honor of the traditional Argentine celebration. A total of 15 artists who will perform on 12 dates, without ruling out new dates for a poster that has closed in just two weeks and could include at least two new artists.
Among the novelties of the festival, the celebration of a concert for the deaf stands out, an event that will be carried out in collaboration with the sociocultural association enCantados.
The organization of the new event is the responsibility of Concert Studio, responsible for the Jardins de Pedralbes festival for the last ten editions. "We started a festival that already exists in a new house," explained Martín Pérez, director of the promoter, at the festival's presentation. It is with this intention that the new musical proposal is presented as the eleventh edition of the festival held on the Diagonal, also incorporating the Festival Jardins Pedralbes last name, a trademark that Concert Studio has registered.
The director of Concert Studio wanted to highlight the importance of the public, which "is the one who decides whether to hold a festival or not". But above all he has highlighted the importance of values, values that he links to the name of the festival, Alma, and that he would like to see "in other spaces of society". Martín Pérez has announced that the ticket prices will be very tight, and the concerts will begin a little earlier than usual, around 9:15 p.m. or 9:30 p.m., to minimize inconvenience to the neighbors and facilitate access to public transport for those attending.
During the presentation, the director of Concert Studio expressed his satisfaction with the work carried out in the Pedralbes gardens, "we have turned out well", he explained, recalling the good image they have left, and which has led them, among other things, to undertake the realization of a festival in Madrid "type Pedralbes".
The concerts at Poble Espanyol will have a capacity of approximately 5,000 people, significantly higher than the capacity of the Pedralbes gardens. This figure includes 500 seated and numbered seats that will be achieved thanks to the installation of two grandstands with the intention of facilitating attendance for a certain type of public that prizes comfort. The only exception will be the performance of Gustavo Santaolalla, in which all the localities will be seated. The creation of a restaurant area is also planned, in the image and likeness of the one that already existed in the original Pedralbes festival.
The agreement with the Montjuïc site, a private management entity, is for one year but with the intention of remaining permanently on the Montjuïc mountain. "We are thinking in the long term" explained Martín Pérez in the presentation, noting that Poble Espanyol is "a reference place in Barcelona, where we have felt very welcome" and that they are thinking of extending it to ten years.
