A Live Music Market with pop, Catalan mod and inter-regional stars

BarcelonaA special show directed by the playwright Lucia del Greco inaugurated the 38th edition of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic, which will take place from September 16 to 20. "It is a project designed to generate discourse and activate new perspectives on the concept of live music," says, without revealing any details, Joan Rial, one of the directors of the Market along with Rubèn Pujol and Jordi Casadesús. "It's one of the things I'm most excited about this year," he adds. Over these five days, different venues in Vic will host the 72 performances programmed by the Market, a selection made from the 1,751 proposals received, 250 more than in 2025. All in all, including the strictly professional part, with a budget of 1.18 million euros (80,000 more than last year), provided mainly by public administrations (Generalitat, Vic City Council, Barcelona Provincial Council, Ministry of Culture). The main private sponsor continues to be Estrella Damm, which contributes 90,000 euros.

50% of the proposals on the lineup are Catalan, 24% are from the rest of Spain, and 26% are international, mainly from Portugal, France, and Italy. Among the Catalan artists are groups such as Ginestà, Remei de Ca la Fresca, Lia Kali, Mar Pujol, L'Arannà, Mama Dousha, Queralt Lahoz, Crim, Dan Peralbo i el Comboi and Quimi Portet, the inter-county star who will perform at home once the tour of El Último de la Fila has concluded. As usual, the stylistic range is quite broad: from the author pop of Socunbohemio (the project of Artur Viñas from Barcelona) to the jazz of Irene Reig, the macarrismo of the rapper from Montgat Baya Baye, and the jazz of Irene Reig. Of the former, Lluís Gavaldà says he is "a troubadour of the 21st century, an artist with enough sensitivity to show us that artificial intelligence will never surpass natural beauty". Saxophonist Irene Reig is responsible for one of the best albums of 2025, Ànima. And Baye Baye is eloquently discussed in the album Faves tendres (2025) and collaborations such as the one he did with Cecilio G on the track Cartagena Independent, a living history of Catalan hip-hop.

Among the proposals from outside Catalonia, the Valencians Pep Gimeno Botifarra and Malifeta (a band with former members of Zoo and Pupil·les), the Basques Marte Lasarte, the Galician Baiuca, the Madrilenians Parquesvr, the Hispanic-Moroccan Rachid B, and the Asturian Nacho Vegas, who will offer a special performance covering 25 years of his career. "It is a concert that Nacho Vegas will only perform in Vic and at the other two music festivals in the country, BIME in Bilbao and Monkey Week in Puerto de Santa María," Casadesús specifies.

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. And the Bisbal resident Cloe Riembau, winner of the Sona9 contest, will premiere her album there D’aquesta aigua no en beuré. And Cloe Riembau from Bisbal, the winner of the Sona9 contest, will premiere the album Equilibris sense xarxa, produced by Jaume Pla (Mazoni) and Aleix Bou. The duo L'Arannà will also perform, about to release the album Turmarí, which they began to preview last year at the Fira Mediterrània de Manresa.

The Mercat, together with the Auditori de Girona and La Marfà, promotes the alliance of the Brazilian pianist Amaro Freitas and Momi Maiga, the Senegalese kora master based in Catalonia. And with Musika Buleoga and La Fabra i Coats, it promotes the meeting between the Basque Xabier Badiola and Magalí Datzira from Barcelona.

Without the Sucre stage

Casadesús, Pujol and Rial premiered last year as directors of the Mercat de Música Viva, and even then they introduced some novelties, such as a stage in front of the cathedral and two more inside the churches of Els Dolors and La Pietat. All three are maintained, but the one at El Sucre disappears. "We are changing it for the Carpa," says Pujol. That is, the area outside L'Atlàntida is expanded and reconfigured. "Last year we already decided that we wanted the most important concerts in Plaça Major, and at El Sucre we programmed more alternative proposals that will now go to the Carpa," explains Rial. The majority of stages remain free, and admission to the concerts at Jazz Cava, L'Atlàntida and the church of Els Dolors is 4 euros.

Other changes include the entry of Dice, the ticket sales platform, as a sponsor, which will add Catalan to the application, and the incorporation of Apple Music as the streaming platform for the Mercat de Música Viva. On the professional side, few substantial novelties, except for the relocation of speed dating, which, as Pujol explains, leaves the inner courtyard of L'Atlàntida to seek better acoustic conditions in a closed room. "It is a consolidated market," recalls Pujol.