The Vida Festival celebrates the musical community

Vilanova i la GeltrúOn July 2, the central esplanade of Masia d'en Cabanyes was invaded by the Mulassa Boja and the Mulassa Presumida, by the sticks, the ribbons, the gitanes and the tambourines, among other pillars of the folklore of Vilanova i la Geltrú and El Garraf. They were part of the Metafísica Procession conceived by El Petit de Cal Eril as the opening of the 2026 edition of the Vida Festival. After a first part of popular and poetic performance (with Max Codinach reciting from the air), Joan Pons's group took the stage to link milestones of mystic pop and continue building community, with a trickle of guests that included Tarta Relena and Esperit!, and also artists who were part of the festival's lineup, such as Ferran Palau, Remei de Ca la Fresca and Dan Peralbo i el Comboi.

Centered around the concept “We are all the same person,” the show introduced the leitmotif that ended up tying together the various performances at Vida: the claim for music as a space for collaboration and community. However, during the first day there was a certain disconnection between the audience and the artistic proposals, which was evident in the scant following of the day's theoretical international headliners, Canadian singer Charlotte Cardin and the British band Saint Etienne, veterans saying goodbye after more than three decades of enlightened hedonism. Impossible not to feel a pang of pain seeing how anthems like Heart failed (in the back of a taxi) and He's on the phone from the stage as background music. We hope that, as vocalist Sarah Cracknell promised, there will be another opportunity to bid farewell to her legacy as it deserves. The coolness could be a consequence of the remarkably young average age of an audience that was saving its energy for the local acts that were to bring the night to a climatic point: Barry B, Ralphie Choo, and Alcalá Norte.

The following days confirmed the trend and, with the permission of the multitudinous session of electronic popular dances by a Fatboy Slim devoted to the choreography of screams hooligan-like, the concerts with the highest attendance were the two artists from the State, Guitarricadelafuente and Amaia. The first one again displayed the expanding wave of Spanish leather (2025), confirmation record and sensuality of clear diction and immediate connection: the projection of the lyrics of Mataleón on screens was redundant given the evidence that most of those present knew it by heart. For its part, Amaia arrived at Vida with the notable If I open my eyes it is not real (2025) and a tour already underway for venues of considerable capacity. The experience does not waste the spontaneity that the singer has turned into a hit more of their repertoire, and which allows them to both suggest improvements to the stage lighting design and stop a song the moment they notice someone fainting in the audience. But their most recent compositions do amplify the feeling that the Pamplona-born artist concentrates all possible incarnations of Spanish pop within their persona, whether indirectly –M.A.P.S., Mecano's best song not written by the Madrid trio– as explicit, in its transformative version of Saints that I painted for you of Los Planetas.

In the local triumphs section, we must add Maria Arnal, who with AMA (2026) has created a dissertation on the relationship between voice, body, and soul that on stage organically moves from cosmic intimacy to galvanic euphoria, and La Ludwig Band, almost resident artists of the festival, as demonstrated by the fact that in their concerts surprise has given way to anticipation for certain gestures that the group, an E Street Band that exchanges the road for hearty breakfasts, deploys with the certainty of someone who knows what reaction to expect on the other side. At one point in the performance, Quim Carandell recalled his history with Vida, and particularly his debut on the La Cabana stage in 2022.

The wink signaled a space that, together with the photogenic El Vaixell – where this year Yerai Cortés managed to have the audience follow his flamenco guitar recital with a silence worthy of an auditorium – has become the heart and lungs of the venue. A small stage, surrounded by trees and conducive to the revelations and communion we referred to at the beginning of the chronicle, which encapsulated three concerts that became highlights of the weekend: the intense psychedelic rock performance by Osees, the afternoon masterclass on the politics of Latin rhythms given by the Colombians Frente Cumbiero, and the flamenco intoxicated by strange bodies (among them, "jungle bases) revolutionized) that Ángeles Toledano dominates. A trio of postcards for the history of Vida, which this year has gathered "around 32,000 people" and has already announced Chinese American Bear as the first band for the next edition, which will be held from July 1st to 3rd, 2027.