Music will return one more year to the gardens of the Palau de Pedralbes by the hand of Nits de Barcelona, ​​the festival that was presented this Thursday in the same space on the Diagonal with some thirty dates that clear up the last question that remained to be discovered among the great Catalan summer festivals. Names like Natalia Lafourcade, Las Migas, Sebastián Yatra or Diego el Cigala will contribute their art between June 27 and July 26. An event that runs at the hands of the promoter Clipper’s, winner of the public tender organized last February by the Generalitat to grant management of the event for three years.
“We have designed an artistic proposal adapting to current trends” highlighted the festival’s director and Clipper’s president, Juli Guiu, during the presentation, held in the stately halls of the Palau under the direction of Carles Sants, the former Tricicle, who he will also have his night at the festival. “The musical offer is wide, eclectic and of quality” he explained, noting that the line-up has been prepared in just seven weeks. The event included performances by Meritxell Nedderman and Antonio Orozco, as well as the acrobatic skills of the Pablo Menéndez Performance company and the comedian Carles Sans, in what was meant to be a small tasting of the shows that those who come to these Nits de Barcelona, ​​whose tickets go on sale this Friday.
One of the novelties of this festival will be the division of the shows into two phases. The first will cover ten concerts, from June 27 to July 6, to be held in the garden area with a capacity of 800 people, while the second, from July 7 to 26, will take place in an auditorium located in front of the Palau de Pedralbes itself with a capacity for 2,400 attendees. A new format for a new era under the helm of Clipper’s accompanied by a name change with respect to the concert series that, since 2013, has been taking place during the summer at the former royal residence on Avinguda Diagonal. A new brand that, in any case, does not manage to completely dilute the confusion caused by the celebration this July of two festivals under the epithet Pedralbes, the one announced this Thursday and the Alma Jardins Pedralbes that will take place in Poble Espanyol de la Hand of Concert Studio, promoters until last year of the musical cycle that was presented this Thursday.
“We have not looked at each other in the previous festival” Juli Guiu has made clear, “we have been governed by a public contest” and the specific rules that it has set. In this sense, he has ruled out the existence of a rivalry with Concert Studio, downplaying the presence of the Pedralbes name at two festivals. “When you do a festival, you put the name of where you do itâ€, he pointed out, making it clear in reference to the Alma festival, which he considers “one more festival of the many that are held in Barcelonaâ€. Of course, Guiu has pointed out that he, as a promoter, “would have put the name of Poble Espanyol”.
The other great protagonist of these Nits de Barcelona is the Village, the gastronomic proposal that will be carried out by well-known names in Barcelona restaurants such as Deleito, Madrelievito, Kao, Casa Pepe, Camarasa, Nomo, Sauleda and Cal Blay Food Lovers, a varied offer that will be organized by White Summer, responsible for the summer festival of the same name on the Costa Brava. “The Village will be a space where restoration, design and the performing arts will coexist,” said Vanessa Llopart, CEO of the Clipper’s group, during the presentation, highlighting the desire to organize a festival that takes advantage of “the uniqueness of the space” and at the same time time help to consolidate Barcelona and Catalonia “as a benchmark in the promotion and development of culture”.
The first phase of the Nits de Barcelona will be dominated by music of Catalan origin from its first concert, starring the former Txarango Sergi Carbonell, who will present the songs from Refugi, his first solo work. Then it will be the turn of artists like Sara Roy, the Delafé and Flores Azules duo, the winner of Eufòria Mariona Escoda or the rapper and judge of the same program Lildami. There will also be a night for the pianist Meritxell Nedderman, the festive music of Buhos or the flamenco sound of Las Migas, winners of a Latin Grammy for Best Flamenco Album for Libres, his latest work. And of course we cannot forget the rock melodies of Los Elefantes and the colorful choreographies to the hip hop rhythm of the Brodas Bros, who will present their show Ejército de la luz.
For the Palau stage, as of July 7, the most international names have been reserved, such as the Mexican Natalia Lafourcade, who returns to the road with the album De todas las flores after taking a long break in 2022. A main course that gives rise to a varied musical offer, from the most daring pop of Alizzz to the soprano voice of Ainhoa ​​Arteta. Names like Molotov, the veteran rock band from Mexico City, stand out on the list, which together with Lafourcade and Gloria Trevi, who is performing for the first time in the city, make up the notorious Mexican representation of the festival. Or the aforementioned Carles Sans, formerly of Tricicle, who will present his show Por fin solo!, co-directed by Jose Corbacho, a review of the anecdotes that emerged during the 40 years that the trio shared, of course, in silence. “I’m the only one who doesn’t sing,” Sans pointed out during the presentation.
To these names must be added those of those artists who present a new album, such as Els Amics de les Arts and their Allà on volia, Taburete that will come from the hand of Matadero 5, the British Tom Odell, who arrives with Best day of my life under his arm or David Bisbal, who will present a new tour and new songs, those of the album that will appear in the coming months. And regular Barcelona summer visitors such as Sebastián Yatra, Ara Malikian or Diego el Cigala could not be missing, either, who will accompany international artists such as the American Melody Gardot, the Colombians Morat, the Hungarian pianist Balázs Havasi or the veteran formation The Manhattan Transfer, who will celebrate their 50th anniversary on the Barcelona stage. A total of 30 “Nits†for a festival that from the outset has a clear objective of equaling or surpassing past and future offers for the Barcelona summer, a competition that will undoubtedly benefit those who decide to spend this summer in the Catalan capital.
