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.

50th birthday party at the Jamboree

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!

“La Reial ens mou”, new initiative in Barcelona

La Reial ens mou

Music, children’s shows, literary circles, workshops, wine tasting sessions: all this and much more can be found in Plaça Reial, thanks to Plaça Reial ens mou, an initiative that aims to broaden the range of cultural and leisure activities on offer in this iconic Barcelona square.

Roberto Tierz, who is the president of the Plaça Reial Friends and Traders Association, says the idea is for “the people of Barcelona to rediscover the Plaça Reial and enjoy the square“.

December saw “Raval Kids” and they have also started the Sunday mornings for children, with puppet shows, magic, storytelling and circus acts at the sala Tarantos. Since February they have been offering 30 minutes of jazz, to suit everybody, on Sunday mornings in sala Jamboree. What’s more, when the good weather arrives, there will be some open air activities, like musical aperitifs, to encourage music on the terraces.

La Reial ens mou also wants to make the most of the square’s gastronomic side and has therefore organised tea, coffee and wine tasting, led by tasters and wine experts, in the square’s bars and restaurants.

In short, the big aim is “the ‘reconquest’ of the square, for people to return to a square that has a great deal to offer and is a great unknown in the city“.

If you would like to know all the activities and events that the Plaça Reial Friends and Traders Association will organize with the new initiative, please visit the La Reial website.