MED Festival is «solid, vigorous» and ready to liven up the Historic Center of Loulé

Tickets are on sale

Eneida Marta – Photo: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação

A «solid and vigorous» MED not only in music, but also «in its other valences», such as literature, cinema and handicrafts. The final presentation of the festival took place this Friday night, June 2, at Cineteatro Louletano, and featured a concert by Eneida Marta, the first confirmation for 2024.

From the 29th of June to the 2nd of July, world music will once again flood the Historic Center of Loulé, in the 19th edition of the MED, which has consolidation as one of its mottos.

«We are consolidating concepts and giving solidity to the MED to prepare it for an edition of 2024 in which we celebrate 20 years and we will have several novelties», Carlos Carmo, director of the festival, told journalists.

In total, there will be 12 stages at MED: not «all of them physical structure, but areas of performance». There will be 5 main stages and 7 secondary stages, the latter with a smaller dimension, «but with equally high quality».

Cineteatro Louletano once again hosts the opening concert of the MED Festival, on the eve of the venue opening its doors, on 28 June, at 21 pm, with the debut in Portugal of the artist from Haiti/United States, Melanie Charles. Festival ticket holders have free entry.

On the Bicas Velhas Stage, curatorship is by Bóia – Associação Cultural, with an interdisciplinary program “out of the box”. Here will perform Rastafogo (June 29), Meta- (June 30) and a live act with the Brazilians Venga Venga (July 1st), a band that will also be on one of the main stages for a DJ set.

 

Carlos Carmo – Photo: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação

 

An ever-present figure at this festival, “Vagabundo” Nanook takes over Palco Arco for the three days, while Amar Guitarra, another presence almost since the genesis of the Festival, return to liven up Palco Mercado.

On the Main Stages, Cerca, Castelo, Fountain and Hammam, the artists Amadou&Mariam (Mali), Amaro Freitas (Brazil), AYWA (Morocco/France), BandaAdriatica (Italy), Bandua (Portugal), Bateu Matou (Portugal) will take to the stage. , Bia Ferreira (Brazil), Bulimundo (Cape Verde), Club Makumba (Portugal), Horace Andy (Jamaica), Lavoisier (Portugal), Omar Souleyman (Syria), Onipa (Ghana/UK), Sara Correia (Portugal), Sarah McCoy (USA), Sétima Legião (Portugal) and Pedro Mafama (Portugal).

They are joined by Kabaka Pyramid (Jamaica), UDJAT invite Pedro Jóia (Portugal), Balkan Taksim (Romania), Nancy Vieira (Guinea-Bissau), Moonshiners invite Samuel Úria (Portugal), Nicola Conte Umoja feat. Zara McFarlane (Italy/UK), Monda (Portugal), Poil Ueda (Japan/France), La Sra. Tomasa (Spain), Zeca Medeiros (Portugal), DJ Nuno Galopim (Portugal), Jean Christian et le Quator des Rêve Enfouis (Canada/Portugal), Tomoro (Japan), Caamaño&Ameixeiras (Spain), Carpideira (Portugal), Ana Lua Caiano (Russia/Portugal), Miguel Calhaz (Portugal), Marco Martins´Low Profile (Portugal) and Venga Venga DJ Set + Live Act (Brazil).

One of the big news is the return of MED to Café Calcinha.

Afonso Dias will have the responsibility over three days, in two daily moments of about 40 minutes, to present a different musicality, from Zeca Afonso to Jacques Brel, from Carlos do Carmo to the protest song, for example.

The Casa da Cultura will have literary moments, in charge of Tápê, with the return of the “Poesias do Mundo” project. The aim is for this to be a space for sharing and inclusion, always with the word as a motto.

Initiatives such as MED Classic and MED Jazz will also return. With regard to the former, there will be, on the 29th and 30th of June and the 1st of July, concerts by the Duo Guirimbadu, Caminus Duo and Quintetango, at Igreja Matriz.

On the 2nd, MED Classic takes to the Main Stage, at 21, a concert by the students of the Conservatório de Música de Loulé – Francisco Rosado, whose formation will be an orchestra, with a choir.

The curatorship will be Sérgio Leite, director of the Professor Francisco Rosado Conservatory of Music.

As for MED Jazz, it will take place, like last year, in the Cloisters of the Convent, with the support of Mákina de Cena, a cultural association from Loulé.

Every day there will be music, at 20:30 pm and 22:30 pm, with the likes of Marco Martins'Low Profile, FUSHI and Leon Baldesberger's Meersalz.

In addition to this range of activities, handicrafts (more than 100 stalls), the exhibition “Corpos Celestes”, by Adriana João, Bruno Silva, Joana da Conceição and José Jesus, at the Art Gallery of the Convent, and entertainment street, with names like Al-Fanfare.

Another of the returns is the cinema cycle that will have Rui Pedro Tendinha as curator.

This year the novelty is the new space, located next to the Art Gallery, with the recreation of a true cinema room where films will be shown and where concerts take place.

In addition to the exhibition of the short films that won the Sophia Student award, there will be a special moment.

This is the projection of the film “A Viagem do Rei”, in which we will have a ShowCase with the artist Rui Reininho who made the soundtrack. This moment will take place on the 2nd of July, at 17 pm, at the Cineteatro Louletano.

Loulé Design Lab incubators once again take an active part in the decoration of the venue's spaces, through the “reuse and valorization of waste that are resources, to give beauty to the space”. This was the case last year at Palco Hammam and at Cinema MED, and this year other areas will benefit from the creativity of these designers.

In street arts, partnerships are reinforced with Satori, Al-Fanfarre and also with the Câmara de Almodôvar to present Cante Alentejano, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

But international folklore will be in force at the MED, within the scope of «a very close work that has been done with Casa da América Latina», and in this edition, groups from Mexico, Colombia and Paraguay. For the 20th edition there is the promise of “inputs in this matter”.

The educational services of the Municipal Library are once again in charge of promoting MED Kids, a space dedicated to the youngest that receives children from 6 to 12 years old daily, for activities related to this spirit of the cultures of the world.

 

Vítor Aleixo – Photo: Pedro Lemos | Sul Informação

 

On the Open Day, Sunday, July 2nd, the organization wants to «allow all the people who could not be present in the 3 days, to understand a little about the dynamics and environment of MED». Without the big concerts, some programming is planned, such as the performance of the Coro Conservatório, at Igreja Matriz, Cinema MED at Cineteatro and some showcookings of Mediterranean Diet.

Vítor Aleixo, mayor of Loulé, spoke of the prestige that the event has achieved in almost two decades. «It is also thanks to the MED that Loulé is known in the country», he said.

«The city is happy to organize this edition of the Festival. We will have the possibility to listen to artists who come from many parts of the world, with their music, their culture, their diversity, everything that makes life beautiful... This is the atmosphere that we intend to create every year in that historic center from the city of Loulé and so far we have succeeded», he concluded.

Tickets are on pre-sale, with reduced prices, until the 25th of June: daily ticket (10 euros), festival ticket (three-day pass) – 30 euros and daily family ticket (two adults and two children up to 16 years) – 35 euros.

 

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