Festival de Jerez 2020

This famous flamenco festival starts tomorrow, and over the next two weeks the city of Jerez will see over 1,000 participants attending daily workshops and shows. It’s an event that holds a special place in my heart as it was my first immersion into flamenco in Spain back in 2014. So what makes this festival so popular?

The workshops

Participating in a workshop with Leonor Leal in the 2014 Festival de Jerez.

Unlike other festivals, the Festival de Jerez is fundamentally a festival of workshops. Most workshops run for one week and the program includes morning, midday and afternoon time-slots. This year over fifty workshops and courses are on offer at different levels. It is a dance-focused festival, so with the exception of a couple of workshops on palmas, all other courses are for dancers. Don’t make the same mistake I did — in 2014 I enrolled myself in three workshops per day, including two official workshops with Manuel Betanzos and Leonor Leal, and one off-festival workshop with La Moneta. I could barely walk back to my accommodation at the end of the day!

For 2020 the main program of workshops is only available in Spanish but the general norms of participation are available in English.

The shows

The festival’s workshops are admittedly not the cheapest way to study flamenco, but…. enrolment in a course awards you free attendance to six of the festival’s programmed shows during the week of the course. That is to say, if you enrol in one or more workshops in week one, you will have access to six specific shows in week one; and if you enrol in one or more workshops in week two, you will have access to six specific shows in week two. The festival hosts a multitude of shows but the evening performances at the Teatro Villamarta can be considered the main attractions with some shows selling out completely. When you consider the cost of those six ‘free’ tickets, the registration fee for the workshop seems a lot more reasonable. In addition to the shows in Teatro Villamarta, the festival hosts plenty of performances in other theatres, wineries and peñas or flamenco clubs around the city. You can see flamenco from dusk to dawn…. if your legs hold up better than mine did.

This year’s program of shows boasts an impressive lineup including Rafaela Carrasco’s Company, Sara Baras and guitarist Rafael Riqueni, as well as younger dancers such as Luisa Palicio and Maise Márquez.

The atmosphere

Jerez is not exactly a big city. If you are planning to come to this festival in 2021 I recommend booking your accommodation well ahead of time. But that’s one of the things that makes attending such a joy. The city is buzzing with an unparalleled energy from students, teachers and performers. Workshops and shows are held in locations across the city, so you often bump into new and old friends as you head crosstown. Even the normally silent siesta hours after lunch are filled with noise from bars and cafés. In addition to the festival there are numerous off-festival activities happening at flamenco peñas and clubs drawing a local crowd as well as the festival’s international audience.

If you are saving for a flamenco trip to Spain, the Festival de Jerez just might be the right choice for you. It packs so much flamenco action into two weeks, so if you’re time-poor it’s a good way to get your flamenco hit.

Over the next two weeks I’ll be sharing plenty of updates from the festival on our Facebook page and you can follow the Festival de Jerez on Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and Instagram.