In 1975 Comediants and Company Dharma Electric They merged into a common artistic project that generated two of the most emblematic shows of the two companies: the Sun alone of Comedians and The egg as it dances of the Dharma. His performance.
50 years of Canet Rock: a tribute to the Catalan counterculture festival during the Franco era
We compile the best images of what was the Catalan Woodstock in 1975.
28/06/2025
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BarcelonaIt is the 50th anniversary of the birth of the flagship music festival of theUnderground and counterculture in Catalonia in the 1970s. This year, Canet Rock celebrates half a century since that first edition, which was held under Franco's dictatorship and without government permission.
On the weekend of July 26 and 27, 1975, promising "twelve hours of music and madness" they passed by the stage Artists such as Maria del Mar Bonet, Pau Riba, Sisa, Compañía Eléctrica Dharma, the Orquesta Platería, and many others. That was the most crowded edition of all, with some 40,000 people attending.
To capture this, film director Francesc Bellmunt directed the film Canet Rock, which premiered in December 1976. The photographer was also there Francesc Fàbregas, who documented that moment, one of the most intense in post-Franco Catalan culture. These photographs (and others) are part of the book Canet Rock, half a century of music and madness (Enderrock books) They can be seen on display until July 6 at the Ateneo de Sant Just Desvern.
![The festival where everything is possible](data:image/svg+xml,%3Csvg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 4129 2340"%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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The festival where everything is possible
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We will see the sun rise
Morning of July 27, 1975 at the Pla d'en Sala in Canet de Mar, after twelve hours of music and madness.
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Pau Riba at Canet Rock 1975
The sublime performance of Pau Riba In the first Canet, no one was left indifferent.
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The spirit of the festival
Some 35,000 people attended Canet Rock in 1975. Many ended up on the beaches of Maresme the next day, in what was the largest edition of all and one of the most popular open-air rock festivals in Spain up to that time.
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The movie
Àngel Casas during the filming of the movie Canet Rock. Directed by filmmaker Francesc Bellmunt, lThe film captures in real time the development of the 1975 edition of the festival and the spirit of the moment, when times were changing and we were beginning to emerge from the years of repression.
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Songs in Catalan
The guest singers and groups (María del Mar Bonet, Pau Riba, Sisa, Compañía Eléctrica Dharma, Orquesta Platería, etc.) shared a common theme: transgression, or, as it was beginning to be called, counterculture, manifested primarily in the lyrical content of their songs, their use of rock and Catalan. Some belonged to what was known as Layetano rock.
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The Chronicles of 75
The festival chronicles echoed the success of that first edition and what they called a very clear example of what the future we have waited so long for could be.
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Surrounded by flamenco the sun came out
They had nothing to do with rock music or Catalan songs, but they were flamenco musicians.Loleand Manuel were in charge of performing on the Canet stage at sunrise on the 27th. The chronicles of those years tell that when Manuel played the first chords of his guitar, a murmur was heard in the audience, who wanted to hear rock. But the strength and feeling of Manuel's voiceLoleThey performed a miracle and in the midst of the collective apotheosis, the sun rose, amidst verses that called for the voice in the flower and silence for the thistle.
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One year later
The civil government of Catalonia prohibited the performance of Armhole at the Canet Rock in 1975 and the organizers played the song "Any night the sun can rise"on an unlit stage with only a single microphone. It was at the next edition, in 1976, that the Barcelona-born singer-songwriter was able to perform at the festival for the first time.
