The director of summer music events such as Som de Mar in Lloret de Mar, Petit Paradís in Tossa de Mar and Jardins Terramar in Sitges, Carles Gilibets, admits fever for such events, but warns that “not everyone is capable of hosting festivals.”
Gilibets acknowledges in an interview with EFE that a figure like his, who evolves a first idea to create such an event, has entered the market to the point that he is a professor of a postgraduate and a master’s degree on this business.
His warning, however, is that the balloon has inflated and that, “in the coming years, some festivals will disappear “, although “those with some kind of cultural or heritage interest” will be saved.
This is their way of working, that of looking for some landscape or historical element that provides a story that, accompanied by a musical program, provides an experience to the client.
It is descriptive of “do not pretend to be Cap Roig or Portaferrada or Peralada“, in reference to the three major events of this type of summers on the Costa Brava.
There he recalls that the financial resources are different and that they work with great promoters, “but there is a hole for festivals where you can appreciate the environment, something that is overshadowed elsewhere by the artist.”
The trend that has been consolidated and that gives rise to this new figure that he embodies is that of the “artistic and creative director”, who previously remained “hidden” and developed his functions “without so much awareness”.
The key to the proliferation of festivals has been that “town halls and institutions have acted as engines of creation,” but reiterates that it is “a mistake,” because “some towns may have beautiful, arranged major festivals, but not a festival.”
“some villages may have beautiful, tidy major festivals, but not a festival”
“There are municipalities that have tried it and it has lasted two years, because it is difficult to move people with so much competition,” he points out.
Consequently, he positions himself against the generic word festival and considers that “another one should be sought” to define what he and others like him have built in recent years in the form of musical programming that takes care of details such as space or gastronomy.
The artists have a presence in many geographically close concerts, with the exception of some thirty more national and international box offices, according to Carles Gilibets, with which, in the face of so much on offer, “it’s a matter of proposing a very well-wrapped gift”.
Its students in many cases open “their own offices”, but the key to hosting a festival is still that the place has some “attribute” and if you do not have it you can opt for other formulas such as the one you have applied to Palafolls (Maresme) with a weekend of free performances, “a format that will be maintained in the villages”.
“Those who without special attributes or financial support try to charge for concerts will be lost,” says Gilibets, who has come to this world after two decades in Prisa Radio and to collaborate with top music events in Spain, but foreign such as London’s Hard Rock Calling.
Highlights of the pandemicto, proposed to him to the city council of Lloret de Mar, from where it originates, the Som de Mar, which started in 2020 in the Gardens of Santa Clotilde, a public area that has a private area “of the family of the Marquis of Roviralta, who did not rent it for a shooting at Federico Fellini “.
“I met in a meeting with the 88-year-old granddaughter of the Marquis, and her son who, in the situation of the pandemic, was in the business of giving us the space, so I closed the deal in the his residence in Barcelona “, he explains.
Although organizers of festivals such as Ithaca, which is also held on the Costa Brava, have highlighted the difficulty this year in ticket sales, Carles Gilibets says that the Som de Mar is “very good” and that the appointment , although not consolidated, has “made mark and is at the level of being able to remove breast”.
For the future, it envisages a step forward with the presence of international artists focused on the “quality tourist of Lloret de Mar”, but for this reason “it is still missing”.
too dreams of a South Costa Brava brand that combines festivals as is the case with the celebration of the carnival at the same time as he mentions another which he directs, the Little Paradise of Tossa, which is celebrated in a Gothic church on the sea with a capacity limited to just over two hundred spectators.
Here he plans his own production this year on the occasion of the centenary of the birth of Ava Gardner and reiterates that this type of differential proposals are those that will decide the survival of summer musical events apart from the first level. EFE
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