On one side, a lagoon. In front, a raised wooden terrace with musical instruments waiting to be played and tables and chairs. And everywhere, vineyards, intertwined with each other by wide dirt paths. Along one of them walks, unfazed by the heat of the Lleida plain, a yellow electronic dog with robust metal legs, which is the great attraction for children who have come to the Raimat Natura viewpoint.
Seen from this promontory, these tracks between vineyards seem like future paths like those that the promoters of the Raimat Arts Festival (RAF23) are trying to trace, the event that unites gastronomy, culture and classical music and was held on the first weekend of October in the land of the famous wineries of the Lleida company.
At least the path of consolidation is already taking shape with the success of attendance at the second edition of the festival. In addition to a notable influx of people at the family morning at Raimat Natura, the RAF23 organized by the Raymat castle to achieve a positive impact on the territory and the community through the projects of the Raimat Lleida Community Foundation (FCRL), the The main event of the three days, the classical music concert in the wineries brought together more than 400 people, led by the mayors of the provincial capital and the town of Raimat, Félix Larrosa and Iván Fernández, respectively.
The portentous voice of the Canarian soprano Raquel Lojendio filled the cellars and left a trace of hope to move towards more ambitious goals. “It has been a fantastic experience to pair wine with music so that the audience has a complete experience with a charitable cause,” Lojendio commented to the Magazine after her applauded performance. The soprano, who performed arias by Puccini, pieces by Mozart and Häendel, and even dared to perform El cant dels ocells by Pau Casals, was exultant: “it is very gratifying that people come to thank you for making them connect with emotions, "That's why we make music."
Lojendio also sang the Spanish songs performed by the skilled guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas, the artistic director of RAF23, and who also masterfully played solo songs by Rodrigo, Albéniz and Domeniconi. The virtuoso pianist and composer Albert Guinovart completed the gala with notes by Enric Granados from Lleida and nine of the 24 preludes that he himself composed during the long days of confinement.
It was a night of emotions thanks to a musical evening comparable to that organized by international festivals such as the one in Napa Valley, the most famous wine region in California, and which fuels the aspirations that RAF23 and Lleida can find their own space within the panorama Catalan cultural, with nearby references such as the Restival Castell de Peralada. “It is an event that makes us dream,” summarized Pilar Bosch, Councilor for Culture and Promotion of the Paeria de Lleida.
“We want to position a beautiful territory like this and the festival is the best showcase to show the projects of the Raimat Lleida Community Foundation (FCRL), which what it does is promote all the good things we have in the territory, gastronomy, landscape, wines, music and people,” said Elena de Carandini Raventós, president of the foundation and person in charge of Raymat Castle.
De Carandini bought the Raymat castle in 2020 when the wineries were sold to a foreign investment group to preserve the family legacy, since his great-grandfather, Manuel Raventós, from the famous saga of wine entrepreneurs, was the one who acquired the Raimat estate in 1914, which ended up being so important that it caused a town to grow around it.
“Through music we seek to present projects that transform. Last year at a classical music festival we managed to train tractor drivers, this year we are going to talk about water regeneration, the next edition there will be more topics, it will always be a transformative festival,” emphasizes De Carandini.
The festive and solidarity weekend began on Friday night with a charity dinner with local seasonal and KM0 products that was held at the Parador in Lleida and was attended by more than 150 businessmen, among whom representatives of the main sponsors of the event such as Acciona, which let its robotic measurement dog run through the vineyards, and Value Retail, operator of La Roca Village and Las Rozas Village.
The funds raised in this second edition of the RAF will be used to finance water regeneration projects that help alleviate the water crisis suffered by the Lleida region, such as the organization of informative sessions dedicated to the sectors that make the most use of water resources. . And also to make possible, among other initiatives, the second training course for tractor drivers that will be taught with John Deere, the Escola Agrària de Les Borges Blanques and the Fundació del Barça starting in 2024, aimed at groups at risk of exclusion.
Another future path that the Raimat Arts Festival explores is the commitment to become the first water positive and carbon negative event in the world. That is, it will measure and compensate the water and carbon footprint of all participants and attendees at RAF23 and, thanks to Acciona technology, that volume of water will be regenerated to return more water resources to agricultural environments than those used in these events. days that served to enjoy products, wines and cavas from local producers and tour the Raimat vineyards to discover the wine history of the region.
Thanks to the collaboration with entities that are experts in social and environmental impact, such as Quiero and Circular Carbón, the RAF will know in detail in the coming weeks the consumption and waste derived from its implementation and will measure the real change it generates in the community of Raimat. The environmental objective of the festival in three years is to reduce 50% of environmental indicators and add new impact markers, within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).
RAF23, which is organized based on the principles of the circular economy, “is the first festival with a completely regenerative vision. Not only is it an experience that transforms through the arts, but it goes a step further and measures the impact it generates on the communities around it and the environment, ensuring that it returns more resources to the world than it takes, creating also value in the process,” says Elena de Carandini, satisfied with the citizen and business response in this second edition.
