Jerez’s culture is a festival, but between February 20 and March 7, it will be even more so. The city’s performance spaces, streets, and squares will be filled with the activity of the 30th Jerez Festival and with the hundreds of people who come to enjoy our flamenco culture from more than 30 countries. In total, 48 shows, 15 of them premieres. This program, aligned with the #Jerez2031 European Capital of Culture bid, is committed to diversity and inclusion, with the creation of a specific program for people with disabilities.
Thus, stage performances and training courses once again take center stage at this international festival that showcases Jerez’s flamenco culture to the world. The festival was presented today by the city’s mayor, María José García-Pelayo, along with the directors of the Andalusian Flamenco Institute of the Regional Government of Andalusia, Cristóbal Ortega, and the festival itself, Cristóbal Granados.
This year, the Jerez Festival adds new offerings and venues to encourage participation from the public and the city’s cultural stakeholders, such as the Teatro La Gotera in Lazotea. This year’s festival unfolds against a three-part backdrop: the fifteenth anniversary of UNESCO’s declaration of flamenco as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the tenth anniversary of the declaration of the flamenco zambomba of Jerez and Arcos as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), and the ongoing bid for Jerez to become the European Capital of Culture 2031.
To encourage sustainable mobility, the Festival will provide special shuttle buses to facilitate access and allow the public to enjoy dance performances by Manuela Carpio, Olga Pericet, Nino de los Reyes, Andrés Marí, Ana Morales, Salomé Ramírez, Farru, and the companies of Belén López and Julio Ruiz, along with the Ballet Flamenco de Andalucía and the Nuevo Ballet Español, as well as the singing and guitar playing of Mayte Martín, Arcángel, Lela Soto, Yerai Cortés, Santiago Lara, and Ezequiel Benítez, among others.