"It has been the best concert of our lives", said singer and guitarist Adri Bertran on Saturday at the end of the performance by the group Crim at the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. The band from Tarragona projected the forcefulness of punk-rock with an impeccable execution. Even Bertran's slight hoarseness contributed to making the concert at the cathedral stage more exciting, in front of an audience fully committed to 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 demand" of a music industry that "is a mood crusher that dries out the lemons that used to be juicy". The group will call it quits next year after a few farewell concerts included in the tour for the album Futur medieval (BCore, 2025). With this context, they performed on Saturday in Vic.

The narcotic majesty of Arctic Nights closed Nacho Vegas's concert at the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic on Friday. It is the song that contains the title of the Asturian musician's second album, Music boxes that are hard to stop (2003). And it played at the Teatre l'Atlàntida in a very special format: as a trio of piano, two guitars, and vocals, with the imposing contribution of the Sant Medir Choir, about fifty voices at the service of a dozen songs, a conjunction of art, emotion, love, and politics. As Vegas said, the insistence of the Mercat's management convinced him to prepare a performance outside the script of the tour for the album the album Semi-precious lives (2026), which passed through the Sala Apolo in Barcelona. And also outside the script of the Mercat itself, which prioritizes previews of proposals so that music programmers know what is on offer before hiring them. Or perhaps not so outside the script. The inaugural show on Wednesday wondered about what live music is. And these days there have been all kinds of comments that have enriched the debate opened by that Non-concert. But one element was missing. "Without you, concerts and music would not exist," said Vegas, addressing the audience filling the theater.

Sa nit i es dia, by Júlia Colom, is the winner of the first edition of the Marc Lloret Award for best song, which was presented this Friday at the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic. The award, promoted by the band Mishima and the Network of Music Festivals of Catalonia (Xàfec), bears the name of the man who was the keyboardist for the band Mishima, founder of the popArb festival and, for thirteen years, director of the Mercat de Música Viva. The award-winning song is included in the album Paradís (La Castanya, 2025) by the Majorcan singer.

The management of the Mercat de Música Viva de Vic had fueled the mystery by announcing a special opening show: Non concerto, whose stage director, Lucia del Greco, had not wanted to reveal any details. Only the purpose had emerged, to raise questions about what live music is or should be, and the musical material, the album Una lunghissima ombra (2025) by the Italian musician Andrea Laszlo De Simone. The result lived up to expectations, because with elegance and respect for the music it shot at the waterline of live music: the pact according to which the audience admits that what sounds is the result of the action of people playing an instrument. Daring and bewilderment at the same time in a magnificent staging.

Is the cult of the musical idol sidelining the music? Does a concert-goer get excited by the music and the way it is being performed on stage, or simply by being in front of their favorite artist or band? Do the stage elements hinder or amplify the songs? If the music is the most important thing, is it legitimate to put tickets on sale without visibility? Is live music better experienced individually or as a collective experience? Does it make any sense to follow a performance 30 meters from the stage while only looking at screens? Is it necessary to see the artist playing to enjoy a concert?

A special show directed by 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 remains Estrella Damm, which contributes 90,000 euros.