The great night of Crims at the cathedral of Vic

Vic"It has been the best concert of our lives", said singer and guitarist Adri Bertran on Saturday at the end of the Crim group's performance at the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. The Tarragona band projected the forcefulness of punk-rock with an impeccable execution. Even Bertran's mild hoarseness contributed to making the concert at the cathedral stage more exciting in front of an audience involved in the cause from head to toe. The emotional dimension was very important. Crim announced on Wednesday that they are quitting, that after sixteen years there is too much "accumulated wear and tear" due to the "demands" of a music industry that "is a mood crusher that dries up the lemons that used to yield juice". They will leave it next year after a few farewell concerts included in the tour for the album Futur medieval (BCore, 2025). With this context, they performed in Vic.

"Osona is our second home", recalled the singer, grateful for the treatment received and for the response from the spectators, some very young, who sang their hearts out to the repertoire, including the songs from the latest album. There were flares and absolute gratitude among the audience. "A few days ago they announced our death", said Bertran. Before it arrives, what they transmit is an exultant, surly vitality, because Crim have always been about projecting the indignation and rage of punk-rock without smiling. Being screwed doesn't mean giving up, and that is why they perform with such conviction Our Father who art in hell. Attitude, two dizzying guitars, and an indestructible rhythm section. One of the best concerts in the history of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic.

Parquesvr, Mujeres, and rock'n'roll

In the new stage of the Market under the direction of Jordi Casadesús, Rubèn Pujol and Joan Rial, punk-rock and rock have found an ideal space on the cathedral stage. This was proven last year with Biznaga, and this year with Crim, but also with Parquesvr and Mujeres. On Saturday, just before the band from Tarragona, the Barcelona trio Mujeres unleashed a frenetic wave of rock'n'roll. Naturally encouraging, the audience also contributed to making the show more intense and fun by singing and dancing to tracks like Tú y yo and Un sentimiento importante. Ah, love songs and rock'n'roll, what a wonder when Mujeres brings them together...

Friday it was the Madrid group Parquesvr who conquered the heart of Vic with rock and irony. The concert, with a significant presence of material from the album Mitos y leyendas (Raso Estudio, 2026) started very high with the brutal tenderness of Esto que vivimos, a wonderful chronicle of perplexity, precariousness and youthful indulgence that the audience rewarded with all their soul by singing verses like "No sé si estaba enamorado / o esto que vivimos fue porque íbamos drogados", "Que sí, mamá, que estoy bien en Madrid / Tercer trabajo que pierdo por ti" and "Nos tumbábamos tan juntos que inventábamos los techos / Tú entre mis muslos, yo entre tus pechos". Before Todos los madrileños, the singer Javier Ferrara recalled that "maybe not in Catalonia, but in the rest of the State, because here in Spain they call it the State, there is a plague that arrives at the beaches every summer, the fucking Madrilenians". And the initial trio was completed with Mi peña, an affirmation of peripheral self-esteem projected with hip-hop manners that stirs up sarcasm and direct criticism, with jokes about Oliver Laxe ("a bore"), denunciations (regarding Santiago Segura) and a demolishing clairvoyance, such as when he notes that nowadays fascism is a thing for hipsters. Parquesvr are the guys who at a wedding would share the table at the back with La Élite, Zombi Pujol and the ghost of Eskorbuto, and who the next day would make a chronicle of the hangover in an impeccable voice note.

The confidence of the Mercat de Música Viva management in rock and punk-rock contrasts with the disregard for metal. It would not be nonsense to program bands like Bocc and Foscor at the cathedral, or Amargor at the church of La Pietat or the one of Els Dolors, for example. By the way, the initiative of scheduling concerts in churches continues to provide good moments, such as the performance by Del Gesù in quartet format (with two cellos, violin, and voice) at the one of La Pietat, where they shared space with an exhibition on Marià Colomer and the last painters of the Vic Baroque.

Remei de Ca la Fresca, Ginestà, Pep Gimeno Botifarra...

"What is live music?", asked the Mercat de Música Viva with the opening show, Non concerto. We fell for it hook, line, and sinker, trying to provide an answer to those who already had one. Live music is very much like Vic during the Market weekend. It is Ginestà packing out the Plaça Major on Saturday, in the most crowded concert of this edition. With big sound, as befits the stage, siblings Júlia and Pau Serrasolsas also wanted to be closer to the audience, and they stepped down onto the square's floor to sing Estimar-te com la terra, dedicate it to the "Palestinian people" and call for "justice and reparation". Live music is Osona natives Dan Peralbo i el Comboi opening the Plaça Major on Friday, when not so many years ago they were playing on the street in Vic. It is Barcelona's own Lia Kali reigning in the same square three years after singing at the off-festival in the Plaça dels Màrtirs. Live music is a girl covering Rosalía's La perla on a corner and a crowd collapsing the Plaça Don Miquel de Clariana while a band plays on a street stage. It is also Pep Gimeno Botifarra, the glory of La Costera, winning every aura battle at the Teatre l'Atlàntida, calling for us to speak "our language" so that "our people" do not die, and excelling once again in traditional singing, which he projects with that immense voice, a joke on his lips, and mischief in his eyes.

Live music, of course, is Remei de Ca la Fresca filling the Atlàntida tent on Friday. They are finishing new songs to provide continuity to the album L'ham de la pregunta (BankRobber, 2024). In Vic, they presented a couple of them with a rocky sound that tied perfectly into a well-known repertoire, which started with Fusta d'artista and finished an hour later with Tot el que volem és ocupar-te el xalet, the adaptation of MIA's Paper planes that the audience celebrated with as much enthusiasm as there was conviction on stage. The band from Arbúcies is in a prodigious moment, overflowing with charisma and with a seamless live performance that amplifies Xantal Rodríguez's rage when she sings Tots els colors de la ràbia and when in Mal de muntanya she asks the audience to join the demonstration on Sunday in Barcelona against the expansion of El Prat airport. Rodríguez also recalled that last year they performed at the Adoberies Fest, which takes place coinciding with the Market, and urged the audience to go. Because live music is also the self-managed determination of the Adoberies Fest and the buzz of the utopian community of the Sugar Fest bandits, the gathering of cheerful grumpy people who for many years have taken advantage of the Market's dates to have their say.

1,300 professionals and a moving tribute to Marc Lloret

The 2026 edition of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic has brought together 1,300 accredited professionals. 80% are Catalan, 15% from the rest of the country and 5% international (from 24 countries). There is continuity in the professional model centralized at L'Atlàntida that was consolidated by the previous management led by Marc Lloret, with several improvements, such as the reduction of showcases in the morning, which allows more time for meetings. The intention is to preserve this scale. "We want to preserve a model based on proximity, the quality of relationships and the sustainability of the professional experience," says Joan Rial. Where the hand of the new management is most noticeable is in the artistic line, with a good part of the programming reflecting the musical sensibility of Rial, Pujol and Casadesús. In any case, an offer that manages to mobilize a lot of public prevails. It is a joy to see so many people up and down the streets of Vic, and at the same time to see how the city embraces music.

Coinciding with the Market, the ACVIC Centre d'Arts Contemporànies is hosting until October 9th the exhibition Escollir l'amor. It is a moving tribute by Maria Permanyer to her late partner, Marc Lloret, who died on February 2, 2025. The memory of Lloret, keyboardist for Mishima and director of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic for thirteen years, until 2024, is present in an exhibition tour that includes photographs by Permanyer of a delicate intimacy that convey love in the face of the imminence of death due to the severity of a cancer diagnosis. The exhibition is experienced with headphones that allow you to listen to songs associated with the images and texts by Rilke, Viktor E. Frankl, Francesc Torralba and Marc Lloret himself. Playing there are Els vespres verds and Despertar amb caiguda, by Mishima; Del amor, by Lucia Fumero; Puntos suspensivos, by Robe Iniesta; Et cantaré, by Joan Garriga i el Mariatxi Galàctic; La despedía, by Maestro Espada, and Para ti, by Los Toreros Muertos, in addition to some beautiful unreleased songs by Marc Lloret, Dani Vega and Pau Vallvé.