For years Catalonia has been exploring (and exploiting) with notable success the combination of pleasures that are wine and music. There are a good handful of festivals that, year after year and in different points from Empordà to Terres de l’Ebre, mix wine tourism and live music with good results, usually in open-air spaces and with pleasant views ( at least for the Barcelona urbanite). With this premise, Ressons Penedès was born last year, a cycle with the Cruïlla seal that wants to take to its ultimate consequences a pairing that delights at least two of the five senses. If not more.
This weekend it is the turn of a second edition that will maintain the essence of its premiere year: notable musical variety and important involvement of the municipalities and wineries of the territory. The capital of cava, Sant Sadurní d’Anoia, will host the inaugural concert today, Friday, with an equally stimulating proposal. This is Marala, a female trio—old acquaintances of the QF—who will offer their unique mix of folk and electronica in a mystical live performance taken care of in the smallest detail.
At full speed, today, the action will move to the stage set up in Vilafranca del Penedès, with a large-format triple concert with a clear recreational and festive vocation. The mestizo rumba of La Pegatina and the flamenco electropop of Ladilla Rusa – both, by the way, DO Montcada i Reixac – will liven up the spirits of the most partying staff.
Looking ahead to the weekend, the wineries scattered throughout the territory will take up the baton. In a perhaps more relaxed tone, about 30 concerts will be spread across fifteen municipalities. There will be two formats: free concerts in the street and emblematic spaces and recitals in the different cellars that attendees will be able to accompany with tastings of the best wines and sparkling wines in the area.
The menu is also diverse enough to suit all types of palates. Of particular note are the flamenco jazz of Chano Domínguez (5/V at the Freixenet cava in Sant Sadurní), the galactic pop of Ferran Palau (5/V at the MontRubí winery, L’Avellà), the rumba-disco of Azucarillo Kings ( 5/V in Las Cavas Vilarnau de Sant Sadurní), the soft voice of Gemma Humet (4/V in Can Ràfols dels Caus, Avinyonet del Penedès) or the classic rhythm’n’blues of Dani Nel·lo (4/V in Segura Viudas cava, Torrelavit).
On Saturday night, as a parenthesis, the party will return: two of the great references of urban in Catalan, The Tyets and Mushka, will be the protagonists of the large stage in Vilafranca in what promises to be the most youthful event of the festival. Surely, as is appropriate in these lands, the youngest will once again be carried away by the Bacchic fury.
