Culture beats at Jávea folk festival
A FUSION of traditional melodies subtly reworked and melting national borders in the process, Jávea folk festival takes music back to its roots, opening a window onto the soul of a given culture – be it very local or several continents away, or a crossover of both.
The second-best bit about the festival is that it in all of its 20 years it has always been free of charge.
The 2022 line-up has now been released, to help music lovers plan their evenings this spring.
As always, the artistic directors are Toni Torregrosa and Joan Buigues of the marching band Romàntica del Saladar.
Friday, April 22 at 20.00: Kicking off this year's festival with traditional folk music from the Valencia region, local singer-songwriter Isabel Latorre leads her band Eixa for a passion-filled opening act at the Casa de Cultura Friday, May 13 at 22.30: Spain's farthest north-western region of Galicia shares Celtic roots with Scotland, Ireland, Brittany, Cornwall and Portugal, as you'll be able to hear in its fast-paced folk
tracks voiced by prestigious string soloist Carlos Núñez, who hails from this emeraldgreen idyll. He's joined by one of the Valencia region's most iconic folk bands, La Xàfiga, from Muro d'Alcoi, mixing Celtic guitar and dulcimer (or reed-recorder) notes for a thrilling starlit show in the Plaza de la Constitución
Saturday, May 14 at 22.30: Kurdish folk musician Gani Mirzo brings a fusion of his own land’s traditionally Middle-Eastern rhythms, flamenco, Spanish gypsy strings and Kurdish jazz, making full use of some of the oldest instruments on the Mediterranean: The lyre, buzuk and acoustic guitar. Gani's Dignity Road tour is stopping for one night only in Jávea. It has been
raising cash along the route by setting aside the lion's share of their concert earnings to support refugees at the Duhok camp in Iraq. Catch them under the night sky in the Plaza de la Constitución Sunday, May 15 at 12.00: A cosy curtain-closing concert by the Cataluña-born duo Carol Duran and Núria Lozano will welcome the audience into the very roots of the north-eastern region's ancient popular culture, with their own compositions and bespoke lyrics. The powerful, cut-glass vocals of two of Cataluña's performers of the moment will benefit from the unique acoustics and stunning natural backdrop of Jávea's Santa Llúcia hermitage hilltop chapel