Veranos de la Villa
For its next edition, already the 23rd, Veranos de la Villa will insist on a varied programme, including a wide selection of important and prestigious stars, national and international groups and companies, to compose a highly artistic cultural offer. As in previous editions of the festival, during July and August 2008 we hope Madrid will accommodate a vast programme, with over one hundred shows from a wide range of artistic and performance disciplines: lyrical, dance, theatre and a varied music programme including cycles and concerts of classical music, flamenco, jazz, blues, pop, rock, folk, funky, choir and sacred music, etc.As the setting for the coming edition, in 2008 Veranos de la Villa will be able to make use of auditoriums and venues as emblematic as the Main Courtyard of the former Conde Duque Barracks and the Sabatini Gardens. The programme will also be accommodated in classic theatres like the Centro Cultural de la Villa, in the Plaza del Descubrimiento, the Teatro Español, in the Plaza de Santa Ana, and the recently inaugurated Naves del Español at Matadero Madrid and the Teatro Circo Price. All these public spaces are attached to the Madrid Council Government Department for Arts. Alongside the previous locations, the 2008 edition will also move into other venues similarly rooted in our tradition such as the Galileo Gardens and some alternative venues with continuous programmes like Canto de la Cabra and Sala Pradillo, as in previous editions. With children and families in mind, the festival will team up with Titirilandia, which stages its 15th edition, in a programme called “Summer in the City Puppet Party,” in venues as famed and emblematic as the Puppet Theatre in the Retiro Park or the facilities in the Casa Encendida. Another long-standing tradition that returns for another year is the programme for Fescinal, el Cine de la Bombilla, which will include over 200 films, both national and international, that will be screened outdoors in La Bombilla Park.
Street activities have been an essential part of the Veranos de la Villa programme, and have been acclaimed by audience and critics in past and recent editions of the festival. In 2008, we aim to promote, increase and improve this aspect of the festival with classical music concerts, world music, passacaglia, street theatre, etc., in some of the most beautiful and significant squares in Madrid. Plaza de Oriente, Plaza Mayor, Plaza de la Paja, Conde de Miranda, and around Plaza de España, the Debod Temple or Plaza de Colón.
Once again, we face almost the same challenge as in previous edition: to make the festival just that bit better. To offer a programme with great artistic quality which, in many cases, is surprising and original. A cultural offer that encompasses many artistic disciplines and is also popular, open to everyone, so that it can be enjoyed by the citizens of Madrid and by people who visit from outside our city, our autonomous region and our country. We want the Veranos de la Villa festival to contribute to enriching Madrid and its people, to be an ambassador for the city, which -like the festival- is international, cosmopolitan and brilliant, open and peaceful, welcoming, beautiful, dynamic and enterprising, modern and, at the same time, traditional, and close. Over three hundred thousand people experienced and took part in some of the proposals included in the last edition. In 2008 we hope to increase the number of spectators that take part in Veranos de la Villa. The creators, the artists and the public are the genuine scriptwriters of all these shows. With them by our side, we hope to be able to prepare a new and brilliant edition for summer 2008.
Credit : www.esmadrid.com
