The capital of El Segrià is warming up for the most festive event of the year, the 2023 Lleida Festival. From May 9 to 14, the city will be immersed in an outburst of joy that invites citizens to get excited and be surprised by everything offered by the holidays and to recover childhood memories.
The celebration is presented with an extensive program that includes more than 250 activities for all audiences, in which family shows, concerts and the most traditional culture stand out. As usual, the open-air spaces continue to play a leading role, acting as epicenters for the shows, mainly the Camps Elisis and Plaça de Sant Joan. Once again, the festival is also a very prominent economic and emotional engine for citizens and their different sectors of activity.
The programming will provide an opportunity for emerging talent and talent from Lleida -for which it is firmly committed-, especially in the field of music and the performing arts, but it will also be a Festival that will not leave popular culture aside , which will be the protagonist.
In short, this long-awaited celebration is a good reflection of what we are as a society: heir to an ancient tradition, but at the same time a citizenry attentive to the demands and forms of expression of our time. In the Festival, in short, the features that have defined us as a people and that have been bequeathed to us are combined with the current forms of expression, which identify and enrich us.
The celebration also makes us return to our childhood memories, and this is precisely what the poster for this year’s edition reflects. Designed by the illustrator and cartoonist MatÃas Tolsà , from Lleida by adoption and winner of numerous prestigious awards, it wants to be a tribute to the child’s gaze and, at the same time, a call to the child in all of us.
It represents two children, who we see from behind in an angular low-angle shot, and we deduce how they contemplate fascinated all the elements that surround them and that make up the Lleida festival: devils, human towers, fairs, concerts and giants. “Fiestas are scenarios that invite you to listen to this child, with the ability to be excited and surprised, which is, in essence, the antithesis of prejudice, one of the great evils of our society,” explained Tolsà during the presentation of the poster. , last March.
As is natural, popular and traditional culture will once again be a key element of the party. On the one hand, the proclamation of Sant Anastasi is consolidated, on the 10th, with the Seguici del Pregó, which last year incorporated the figure of the trumpets, the Àliga and the Dance of Valencians. The Toc del Pregó is also recovered, collected in the score La Crida, by Luis Carreras, a foxtrot that the author dedicated to the City Council and which at the beginning reproduces the music of the Toc del Pregó.
On the other hand, this year, on Saturday May 13, the Seguici del Marraco is incorporated, which arises as a proposal from the Seguici working group, and whose main objective is to generate a space for participation for the little ones, in a parade and a show pass in which groups from the city will participate as well as a guest from abroad, in this case, the Ball de Gitanes de Reus. At the end of the Seguici, the pacifier can be delivered to the Marraco and receive the certification of the delivery, with its corresponding diploma.
The proclamation will be given by Gerard Encuentra, ICG Força Lleida coach, and will start the festive events. These will include, among others, official celebrations, habanera songs, sardana dances, the performance of the regional houses, with the participation of A Real Banda de Gaitas de Deputación, meetings of giants, a castle festival, fireworks, the correfoc and the Folkloric Festival.
The musical verbenas within the Lleida Festival are also, invariably, some of the most massive events that arouse the greatest expectation. The concerts will once again have the Camps Elisis as the central stage of the party, transformed for the occasion with a spectacular design by the artist from Lleida Joan Pena.
Renowned artists and groups, such as Suu, Rayden, Buhos or 31 FAM, among others, along with local talent, will take the stage. In the case of Rayden, the artistic name by which David MartÃnez Ãlvarez is known, it will be a most special concert. The artist, who achieved fame thanks to a rap contest in 2006, in which he won the world title, and who participated in the Benidorm Fest 2022, has recently announced his retirement from music. It will be a great opportunity to enjoy his concert in Lleida.
It is worth noting the important presence of female talent in the musical programming, which includes artists such as one of the most popular Catalan singer-songwriters, Suu, or the charismatic Scorpio, from the TV3 talent show Eufòria, who will present her first album. You can also enjoy the performance of Joana Crass, from groups such as Roba Estesa and Les Que Faltaband, as well as Paula Lozano from Lleida, the last winner of the program Objective Paki, from La Xarxa de Televisions Locals de Catalunya.
The complete program can be consulted at festeslleida.cat. As a novelty, this year pictograms are incorporated to facilitate the identification of activities with singularities regarding their volume, agglomeration or use of pyrotechnics. You can also find information on the activities with interpretation in sign language, as well as the spaces that have been set up for people with reduced mobility.
