Girona kicks off summer with a singing of habaneras and popular song by the Onyar

GironaFor the second consecutive year, and with the aim of it already becoming a tradition, Girona kicks off the summer with a singing of habaneras overlooking the cathedral and Sant Fèlix. While on the Costa Brava the event is marked by the first Saturday of July in Calella de Palafrugell, in the capital of Girona it is brought forward to Thursday. The evening, organized by the cultural foundation El Foment, also includes a wide gastronomic offering of Catalan products and seeks to reframe the Plaça Catalunya space.

This Thursday, July 2nd, starting at half past nine in the evening, this platform above the Onyar river will be filled with habaneras, but also with popular music by the Barcelona group Son de l’Havana, the trio from Calella de Palafrugell Arjau, and the Girona group Les Anxovetes. “It is a singing that welcomes the summer but also follows the common thread of our cultural offering, with the celebration of the Foguerons de Sant Antoni, the Folklòria per Sant Jordi, the No és Conya monologue festival, and the Glosa de Fires combat,” explains Candi Granés, founder and president of El Foment.

The proposal also wants to escape the festival model with Catalan gastronomy proposals. In addition to the cuisine of Taverna d’El Foment, the project is joined by the cold cuts from Porcus – which has its kitchen in Plaça Catalunya itself –, the cookies and carquinyolis from Sweet Virginia, the artisan beers from Girona Rispa and the Empordà wines from Clos es Vent.

Popular song

If there is one characteristic of El Foment's cantada, as with everything it programs, it is that everything is exclusively in Catalan, as emphasized by the artistic director of the Cantada, Francesc Sánchez Carcassés. It is the only event of its kind in the Principality after the Mostra de l’Havanera de Catalana de Palamós, which is already celebrating 45 years. Furthermore, popular songs have been added so that it becomes a moment of public participation. It is already traditional that, unlike other cantades, it does not end with La bella Lola or El meu avi, but rather the sardana Girona m’enamora, a "musical anthem" of the city in the words of Sánchez Carcassés.

This year, unlike last year, some of the compositions by José Luis Ortega Monasterio will be performed. According to the artistic director, in the previous edition the groups did not propose them and this year they have. "My job is to respect what they propose, I only intervene if there are repetitions," he explains. Calella de Palafrugell has decided to program El meu aviagain after the controversy over the documentary Murs de silenci.