A part of what at the end of the 19th century was the project for the largest psychiatric hospital in Europe is today the headquarters of the Nou Barris district, the same space in which the Desvarío flamenco festival will take place on the weekend of 22 to 24 of July.
The name of the event draws as much from its toponymy as it wants to be “a true example of contemporary flamenco: rich, diverse, polyhedral… that responds to keeping alive that which is so wonderful that flamenco has, that it is an anachronistic art because it knows how to combine both times at the same time”, according to Pedro Barragán, director of the cycle.
Desvarío picks up the witness of the Nou Barris flamenco festival, born in 2000 and which stopped organizing after 17 editions. Last year, it was recovered with a new brand and philosophy, organized by the El Dorado Association (Sociedad Flamenca Barcelonesa) and the Barcelona City Council, and now it will be held for the first time within the framework of the Grec.
“It is a pride to have this program and that it is also in Nou Barris, which is a place that sometimes it is difficult for us to approach”, said Cesc Casadesús, director of the Barcelona summer festival, yesterday at the presentation of the flamenco event. For his part, Xavier Marcé, councilor of the constituency, indicated that “there is a very clear analogy between a district like Nou Barris and that permeability that flamenco has”.
Thus, if in 2000 the festival saw the debut of cantaor Arcángel, in this new edition it will see him again on stage. Vanesa Aibar and María Marín, Josemi Carmona along with percussionist Bandolero and guitarist Pepe Habichuela, Alba Carmona and Jesús Guerrero or dancer and choreographer Andrés Marín will also perform in the five concerts that will be offered. A “sample of all the diversity of flamenco”, in the words of Barragán, which ranges from consolidated artists to other emerging ones.
But the Desvarío program also includes conferences, workshops, performances or masterclasses to “try to see flamenco in all the dimensions it has”, as Barragán claimed. This is the case of the family show Lotería in which the bailaora Karen Lugo aims to bring this musical genre closer to the little ones through a popular game from her native Mexico.
