Dies de Dansa Festival in Barcelona

Núñez i Navarro Hotels, with 9 hotels in the center of Barcelona, sponsor the Dies de Dansa Festival Barcelona from 1 to July 5, 2010.

Dies de Dansa is an international contemporary dance festival in urban spaces. It is a free annual cultural project born in Barcelona, which is part of the GREC Festival de Barcelona. During five days buildings, streets, parks and plazas flood with life in this encounter between dance, urban space and community.

Dies de Dansa takes place in different points of Barcelona, such as the Center for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB), the Joan Miró Foundation, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (MACBA), the Picasso Museum; as well as in the cities of Mataró, Sabadell and Sitges. The daylight programme consists on the presentation of short performances that artists elaborate specifically for each place, with the participation of over 25 national and international companies.

Dies de Dansa also programmes Workshops for the community, a series of free dance workshops suitable to professionals and amateurs, and the workshops Dance within the Family, which throughout experimentation, creativity and research, stimulates the emotional bonds in a fun way.

A great hotel experience

 Our stay in the hotel was such a great experience.

Staff is just brilliant : available, helpful, so nice and polite.
Rooms are beautifuly decorated, calm and really clean.
The amenities such as solarium and swimming pool are stunning.

We are delighted by our stay.

We will definitely come back to Europark Hotel.

Hotel experience added by A., June 2010.

Hotel Jazz – Great Hotel!

Just returned from a 6 night stay. Great location – metro stop, Placa Catalunya a block away, restaurants, anything you could need within a block! Hotel and rooms are very clean and modern, large bed for a European hotel, great bathroom. Staff are friendly and helpful, free wifi in your room (get passcode from front desk), were able to take advantage of roof top pool every day after sightseeing! Yes you could hear the subway rumble but we were on the 7th floor so it wasn’t too bad, noise from the street could be disturbing to some but hey you’re in Barcelona! Took advantage of the breakfast buffet, nice selection, can request scrambled eggs or omelettes, pastries, fruit, juice, etc. a good and convenient way to start your touring day and was reduced to 10.70 euros per person. Great hotel, yes we were Jazzed! With its reasonable rates, I would definitely recommend this hotel – and it’s the first hotel that the rooms look exactly like the hotel photos!

Experience added by leanie, June 2010.

www.hoteljazz.com

The recovery of Sant Agustí Convent

The Sant Agustí convent has recovered its historical building complex for public use. The final outstanding operation, involving the remodelling of the five chapels adjoining the cloister, has been completed.

This brings to an end the process which started in the mid 1990′s to recover the old convent and turn it into a community amenity at the service of the neighbourhood.

The five chapels recovered are part of the Sant Agustí church, which dates back to the 12th century and is in the Gothic style. These chapels were among the few features of the church to have been left intact after the bombardment of Barcelona in 1714. They also served as a link between the church’s nave and the convent’s cloister, which dates back to the 14th century.

This remodelling has enabled the chapels to be reused as culture-oriented venues, as they have been fitted out as new exhibition spaces, along with three underground rooms.

www.bcn.es

Hotel Europark: Wonderful Experience

I would lie if I do not tell you that I was affraid what I was going to find on this 3 star hotel when I use to go to 5 star.
But I was very impressed with the courtesy of their employees. The hotel is modern, good quality, clean, situated in a place close to most everything walking. It is all you can find on a five star in a smaller version.

I will be back without doubt. Thank for your asistance, Europark!!

Experience posted by Martha Navarro, June 2010.

The Mas i Mas Festival in August

For eight years the Mas i Mas Festival has been adding rhythm to the warmest days of the year. This edition’s festival, which kicks off on 29 July with a performance by the Malian diva Rokia Traoré, has programmed over 160 concerts to suit all tastes with world music, flamenco, classical and electronica.

Among all that will be going on, one concert stands out, the Plaça Reial tribute to the city’s most iconic jazz club, the Jamboree, which is 50 this year. Musicians like Chet Baker, Ella Fitzgerald and Ornette Coleman have been here, so jazz will be the star of this free concert on Monday 30 August, starting at 6 pm.

The Big Acoustic Band, the best national jazz outfit, and WTF All Stars, the musicians that liven up the WTF Jam Sessions every Monday at the club, will have the job of bringing the Jamboree out into the light in Plaça Reial.

Appearing at the Mas i Mas Festival besides Rokia Traoré will be Flavio Rodríguez, Lucrecia and Sole Giménez, accompanied by the saxophonist Perico Sambeat. This last recital will close the festival on 1 September at the Palau de la Música.

The inclusion of the Palau de la Música as a festival stage is one of the new features of the eighth Mas i Mas Festival. There the chamber music room will hold three latin and jazz concerts a day.

In all the festival will have seven stages around the city. La Pedrera once again provides the stage for classical music, with three concerts a day, while flamenco will be based at the Tarantos, with six sessions a day, and electronica at the Moog. The Auditori will open the festival and there will also be concerts at Luz de Gas and the Jamboree.

All those people who say nothing happens in Barcelona in August have got it all wrong!

The Teatre Lliure will reopen in September

The Teatre Lliure in the Gràcia district will be reopening its doors on 30 September with “Cat on a hot tin roof” by Tenesse Williams.

The announcement was made by the director of the Lliure, Àlex Rigola, who will be directing the production and embarking on his final season in the post. The play is a co-production with the Centre Dramàtic Nacional and features Muntsa Alcàñiz.

Rigola has explained that the theatre will hold between 200 and 350 people according to the format, and that it will keep the “austere” style of seats without armrests that give the “feeling of sitting on a bench” and the sort of “closeness you would experience if you were in an Agora”.

The second production staged by the Lliure in Gràcia will be Harold Pinter’s “Celebration“, directed by Lluís Pasqual. Another play scheduled to be performed here is “Les dues dones que ballen” by Josep Maria Benet i Jornet, with the season being closed by “Dos“, directed by Eduard Fernández.

The headquarters of the Lliure in Montjuïc, the Fabià Puigserver auditorium, will open the season with “Belmonte“, by Cesc Gelabert and music by Carles Santos. The musician will also be directing “Amarat“, a show on the world of circus.

Hotel 1898… Wow !!!

WOW… Not enough can be said about Hotel 1898 …
I stayed at both the Le Meridien and Hotel 1898 and 1898 wins hands down.

The service, amenities and facilities are just great. I really felt at home in the Deluxe Room – Great Terraces..

In fact it is one of the nicest hotels I have ever visited.

Cheers NN!

Experience posted by M_cat, June 2010

Techno Taverna Sonar Pool Session at B-Hotel Rooftop

This Sunday, June 20, on the terrace of B-Hotel will meet for the first time in Barcelona the Techno Taverna Sonar Pool Session. The best techno music of Germany and Denmark will come to Barcelona coinciding with Sonar 2010. Do not miss this Rooftop Pool Session. Among the DJ’s that will join the event we will be able to listen:

• And.ID  live (Mobilee)
• Tigerskin live (Dessous, Morris Audio)
• Kollektiv Turmstrasse (mgf)
• SIOPIS (Get Physical)
• Konrad Black (Wagon Repair, M-Nus)
• Alexkid (Cadenza, Rekids)
• Uner (Diynamic)
• P.Toile (Mothership, Ostwind)
• Till von Sein (Supplement Facts, Suol)
• Ed Davenport (Poker Flat, LIebe*Detail)
• Rainer (Serialism, Remake Music, Vinyl Club)
• Hitch (Khazuma)
• Stassy (Techno Taverna Berlin)
• Kristian (Techno Taverna Copenhagen)

Taverna Techno Showcase will begin at 11 am until 11 p.m, non-stop!!!
Tickets can be purchased at the B-Hotel on the same Sunday, at a price of 13€ each ticket.

More inf@ visit the Resident Advisor website.

Location: Pool & Terrace at B-Hotel.
Gran Via, 389-391 (next to Plaza Espanya)
When: Sunday 20th June 2010.
From 11.00h to 23.00h

Courbet exhibition at Museu Diocesa

Paintings, drawings, engravings, photographs, documents and personal objects. In all, there are 100 items in “Courbet, between Nature and Culture”, the first major exhibition in Spain dedicated to the father of realism: Gustave Courbet.

Jean Désiré Gustave Courbet (1819 – 1877) was a French painter  who led the Realist movement in 19th-century French painting. Courbet occupies an important place in 19th century French painting as an innovator and as an artist willing to make bold social commentary in his work.

You can visit this exhibition at Museu Diocesa. It offers an all-round view of Courbet’s character, both as an artist and a democratic activist. It also highlights his relationship with Catalonia and Spain, and the influence his ideas had on other artists, like Picasso and Miró.

The exhibition features masterpieces such as “Le Chateau de Chillon” or “Portrait d’homme d’apres Velazquez” and many landscapes of Normandy.

Where: Museu Diocesa
Av. Catedral, 4 (next to the Cathedral)
When: Until September 5th, 2010.

Next Page »