Flexió Verbal fringe festival
If it's art, it's on stage – and it's free. Head to La Xara for a quirky and colourful night-long burst of talent from every quarter
FRINGE arts festival Flexió Verbal is ready to rock tonight in La Xara – free of charge and full of life, probably the weirdest (and most wonderful) alternative al fresco entertainment events of the year, we bet you've never seen anything as quirky and colourful as this.
Unless you've been to it before, of course.
Song, dance, music, exhibitions, poetry readings, film projections and just about every other type of home-made visual art will fill the Cinema Square in the village from 20.00 this evening
and tomorrow (Saturday, August 18).
Unusual in format, each artist, artiste, actor, poetry-reader, and so on gets a 10-minute slot to perform, show, tell, sing or whatever they do best – meaning from curtain-up to curtain-call at around 02.30, between 17 and 20 participating acts will give you a new and very short experience of something completely different from the one before them.
This means nobody's going to bore you if their art isn't your thing – they won't have time. Of course, the downside is that, if you're immensely enjoying someone's show, it'll be over all too quickly. But either scenario (pun intended) is a positive, and with a programme that lurches from photography to folk dance, jazz, reggae, rock and pop to puppet shows, it probably really is possible to please all of the people all of the time.
Hungry and/or thirsty? Grab some tapas or a tasty takeaway from the food trucks and stalls – La Xara's popular 'Earth Market' will be on all night with yummy local produce on sale – and get yourself a drink from one of the pop-up bars in the square. Buñol’s tomatina takes place on August 29, but you have to rush if you want to buy tickets!
Several years ago, the town hall realised they had to limit access to the road on which the event takes place due to an excessive influx of people, so now if you want to take part you have to purchase one of the limited amounts of tickets.
At the time of writing, tickets just for the event are already sold out, but packages including buses from Valencia, Barcelona, Madrid, or a night in a Buñol hotel, a plate of paella or a t-shirt as well as access to the battle are still available.
If you are interested, rush to ticketstomatina.com and see what’s left. Even if you don’t (or can’t) take part in the battle, it is always fun to visit the town, park on the outskirts and wander around. After the battle, participants typically walk down to the river and get rid of the tomato residue there, although residents will also chuck water down from their balconies every now and then.