The capital of Bages will host the 26th edition of the Fira Mediterrània next October, becoming the meeting point for artistic proposals based on tradition and popular culture to keep it alive and update it. A project that cannot forget about artificial intelligence in the year of the media explosion of this technology. A meeting point for the professional sector and society, the Fira will present 83 live music and arts proposals, both local and international, from October 5 to 8, 74% of which will premiere at the event. Among the offer is Evoé! of the versatile (and multi-demanded) Raül Refree and the Italian singer-songwriter Maria Mazzotti, with whom the Fair will open on the 5th. It is a journey through the collective catharsis ceremonies of southern Italy with the tarantella in the center, which will feature with the Plèiade choir and the dramaturgy of Jordi Oriol.
This proposal is part of the International Obrador, like the bagpipes of the Mediterranean Bagpipes Company, which will unite three instruments from the bagpipe family such as the Catalan sac de gemecs, the Italian zampogna and the Turkish tulum. A musical tour of the Mediterranean performed by Francesc Sans, Christian di Fiore and Filiz Ilkay that celebrates 40 years of the recovery of the sac de gemecs in Catalonia.
Among the local artists, for another year the Orquestra de Músiques d’Arrel Tradicional (OMAC) stands out, which will focus on the traditional songbook of the transhumant shepherds of the Pyrenees. A commitment to recovering the culture of rural areas that is also found in the project of jazz trumpeter Alba Careta and her dream journey through càntut, traditional music from the Girona region, with which she will perform several lullabies.
Another way of reinterpreting traditional culture involves artificial intelligence, as Núria Andorrà does at Ni.U, where this technology will be mixed with the interpretation of three musicians (violin, accordion and percussion) and two dancers. Less technological but equally or more daring is the sound of JazzWoman, a Valencian rapper, who will add the cobla to the different disciplines that she has incorporated into her own style. From saxophone to rap, from hip hop to trap, from afrotrap to salsa, and from merengue to bachata.
This year the dance will feature Folk as queer, by Pere Seda’s esbord, a reflection on the construction of collective and individual identity and the influence of cultural legacy. You can also see shows like The Impossible is to Disappear, by Lara Brown, Who Dances His Bad Scare, by Joaquín Collado and Pol Jiménez, or Condens, by the dancer and choreographer Magí Serra, a reflection on how we inhabit spaces.
This year’s edition will expand its borders beyond the Mediterranean with a focus on the Galician and Portuguese scene, which will have ten proposals within the official programming, as well as the presence of a delegation of professionals and programmers from those territories. You can listen to the fado of Sara Correia or the activist from the queer scene Fado Bicha, the electronic mix of Ana Lua Caiano, or the cantareiros of the traditional Galician dance group Xacarandaina.
These artistic proposals are added to the projects in other fields that the Fira will offer, and that include the revisiting of oral narratives through gastronomy in Relleus. Aperiu i Primer Plat, o Berenguera, an investigation into the Catalan poetess Berenguera de Vilamur, as well as a tribute to Josep Anselm Clavé, founder of the Catalan choral movement, which will be carried out by the Sant Jordi Choir to commemorate the bicentenary of her birth.
