International Folk Music Festival
The Plasencia International Folk Festival has gradually established itself as the most important musical and cultural reference in Extremadura, becoming an event awaited not only by the inhabitants of the city and its summer visitors but also by others, regulars to the musical programmes that take place during the summer in many cities.
Proof of this are the figures for the number of attendees in recent editions reaching 20,000 people during the three days of programming, which currently meet in the Torre Lucia, listening, dancing or simply enjoying the spectacle of musicians surprised and delighted with the success of the public that this festival boasts.
The festival, which now takes place in the penultimate week of August, was born in a humble way but with excellent groups in its first editions, which made us enjoy big names in an area where there were no concerts of this type of music.
Gwendal, Carlos Núñez, Flaco Jiménez and Oskorri were the stars of the first edition. The Plaza Mayor was delighted and surprised by the festival’s proposal. Years later, other great artists such as Kepa Junkera, Berrogüetto, Capercaillie, Shooglenifty, Kíla, Luar na Lubre, Oysterband, Carmen París, Eliseo Parra, Elíades Ochoa, Hedningarna, Warsaw Village Band, La Musgaña, Llan de Cubel, Budiño, Susana Seivane, Tejedor, Värttina, the Cubero Brothers, Noa, António Zambujo, … would take the stage at the festival.
In the same way, the festival has helped to launch groups that were barely known before the festival, such as Acetre, Los Niños de los Ojos Rojos, Xarnege, Bryganthia, Espíritu de Lúgubre, Mü, Enverea… We seek to promote these new ways of understanding folk music, where tradition and innovation come together, where these new generations are making rich contributions.
Since the Festival began, the organisation’s efforts have been focused on achieving the best possible line-up every year, with groups and soloists of recognised prestige, with proposals of enormous quality, both from the whole of Spain and the rest of the world. Folk music knows no frontiers, but rather generates meeting places, places where we can be and feel citizens of a single world that is becoming less and less angular.
We do not forget our land. Plasencia has been a fundamental space to support, promote and encourage the folk music proposals that have emerged in the region of Extremadura. Throughout these years there has been no shortage of groups that have brought us the sounds that are close to us, the melodies of our childhood, the rhythms that our grandmothers taught us with spoons or with the mortar. The music that knows and makes us who we are. The echoes that know of our past, of our history.
At Folk Plasencia there is room for everyone. Among the audience we can see people of all ages, from different generations and different cultures, united by music, united by the desire to have a good time. This makes the Festival Plasencia the capital of tolerance and fun.
Moreover, we do not only focus on the performances on the main stage, but we enrich the festival with parallel activities and we give the opportunity to all the people who want to bring their instruments, turning the streets of Plasencia into a place for improvised performances before and after the concerts.
The Venue
Located in the centre of the city, the Torre Lucía venue will once again become the main stage of the Plasencia International Folk Festival. There is perhaps no better place in the city than this walled enclosure, which combines the weight of tradition and history. Torre Lucía is a unique space with the presence of paths that cross, sounds that mingle, stories that are told, tales that are passed down from generation to generation. Once again this year we will feel that special magic of the nights of the Folk Festival impregnated with good music and better sensations.
The concerts are complemented with parades through the city centre and with workshops and small concerts in the Parque de la Isla and the “Las Claras” Cultural Centre.