"We are stubborn and warriors": this is how culture reaches rural Tarragona

TarragonaMaking a living from culture is difficult, but doing so outside the Barcelona metropolitan area seems downright impossible. In Camp de Tarragona and Terres de l'Ebre, high-quality shows and festivals are scheduled, both public and private, but the means to bring culture to the rural world are very fragile. There are examples of success, but also of failure. There are artists who decide to dedicate themselves to something else or festivals that had worked very well, but choose to grow and end up hanging on. There are subsidies to promote various cultural activities, mainly from the Department of Culture and the Tarragona Provincial Council, but depending on public aid to operate is a very high risk.

"You can't depend on subsidies to get by. Subsidies help you get by, but you can't get by on subsidies," explains Delia Batet, who this year celebrates the thirtieth anniversary of Passabarret, a clown and circus company from Valls. After three decades of "hard work," Passabarret has emerged as the most important circus company in the Camp de Tarragona region. They have toured Mexico, Jordan, and many other countries, and they also have a circus school, the Circoteca, where around one hundred children learn to juggle as an extracurricular activity. Getting here hasn't been easy. "We like bowling,"But we also do a lot of hard office work," explains David Sancho, the other soul of the company. "We don't have the same resources as those in the Barcelona metropolitan area. How many companies from Tarragona are there in the major programs?" he asks. Delia claims that the company fights "to revitalize the circus in the region" and assures that, despite the difficulties, they are succeeding. "We are stubborn and warriors, and our clown is a hooligan," she says with a smile. "Because, even though they've been around for thirty years, there are towns where they've never performed. "No one is a prophet in their own land..." she says.

"You have to really wake up or go work at Port Aventura," explains Eva Vives Cabré, the company's director. At that time, the Sala Trono in Tarragona, which undoubtedly makes a great contribution to culture beyond the borders of the capital, was beginning to program its own productions in the region. ~BK_SLT_Lvila~ a lot. Their strength lies in offering "tailor-made projects" to the various local councils and also taking into account the structures of the towns, which in most cases don't have a theater. In the Laundry Room, a project that aims to bring life to village washhouses and give a voice to the women who used them. We return to the LaundryTo make a living from the theater, they have to work for different companies, teach classes, and travel a lot. "We've been to Terres de l'Ebre and Lleida a lot, where there are also companies that operate a lot, and to the Penedès," he explains.

If the performing arts are difficult, music isn't easy either. "In the entire Tarragona area, there are only two registered record labels," says Nacho Pascual, who works for Rambla Discos. "It's true that progress has been made, but there's still a long way to go. We're late," he laments. In his opinion, "artists and creators are leaving here because the network remains centralized." For him, "everything outside the Barcelona metropolitan area can be considered rural." Despite his pessimism, he believes there is a market because he detects a certain "saturation of large-scale shows and a need to do smaller things." Pascual acknowledges that the Catalan Institute of Cultural Companies subsidizes creative endeavors, but criticizes the fact that exhibition now remains in private hands or in the hands of city councils, which, ultimately, thanks to the major festivals, are responsible for a large part of the country's cultural programming.

"We'll go to Barcelona to see Dire Straits"

In Conca de Barberà, with only 620 inhabitants, lies the village of Solivella, which has become a cultural landmark. This summer's Las Noches a la Fresca series will feature Buhos, El Pot Petit, Manu Guix, and Elena Gadel, and in previous editions, Sexenni, Laura Andrés and Roser Loscos, Las Migas, and Suu, among many others, have also performed. The program also always includes local bands. "We villagers shouldn't travel to see certain things," claims Mayor Rosa Salvadó, adding: "We'll go to Barcelona to see Dire Straits."

Like seeing "the same orchestra always playing in four towns," Salvadó looked for ways to get top-level bands to come to this village in Conca de Barberà. And she found a formula: "Work directly with managers, seek subsidies, and suffer a lot." The suffering is also related to subsidies. For this summer's Les Nits a la Fresca concert lineup, Salvadó applied for subsidies last March, but won't know if they will be awarded until November. The City Council, as is normal, will have to pay the groups after the performances, so it assumes the risk that they will ultimately not be awarded the subsidies and the money will already have been spent.

A similar case is that of Escena Germinal, a rural live arts festival promoted by Proyecto Ingenuo and Cassandra Proyectos Artísticos. The festival is subsidized by the Generalitat (Generalitat) and the Tarragona Provincial Council, and also by a contribution from the Alcover City Council, which, in addition to providing funding, offers the facilities of El Convent de les Arts, a municipal artist residency. They also have partners private, such as the Celler Mas Vicenç. The festival, now in its fourth year and seeking to consolidate its position, is held in four municipalities in the Alt Camp region and has a budget of 40,000 euros. Despite the institutions and collaborators behind it, there is still suffering: "We depend on public aid from institutions to which we are very grateful, but due to a matter of deadlines, this edition has not been easy," explained Marc Chornet, one of the festival directors, at a press conference. Later, he clarified that they did not find out they had received all the subsidies until the week before its presentation, when everything was already organized. "Our sources of funding are very unstable," confirmed Júlia Simó, the other festival director. The first deputy mayor of Alcover, Josep Maria Girona, emphasized that one of the festival's strengths is that "it is consolidating little by little, and does not suddenly burst into flames and then die." "We're in the rural world: we're building one bank, and we're not going to build another bank until we've finished this one," he said.

"It's complicated, but not more difficult."

One of the most established festivals is the Euphonic, the Terres de l'Ebre festival of sound, visual, and digital performance arts. This past weekend, it celebrated its 14th edition with performances in 35 venues across eleven towns. The director, Vicent Fibla, disagrees with the theory that programming culture outside of Barcelona is more difficult: "It's extremely complicated and it works differently, but I don't think it's more difficult." Eufònic has grown year after year, always trying to offer "cultural offerings that have a connection with the region," according to Fibla. The festival operates with the help of subsidies, and 75% of its offerings are free, subject to reservation. The audience is mainly "from the towns where things happen" and also residents of other towns along the Ebro River, as well as visitors from Barcelona, Tarragona, and the Valencian Community. As for the artists, 50% are Catalan, some of them from the region; another 25% are from the rest of Spain, and another 25% are international. The formula works, and around 5,000 people can participate in this festival each year.

Another option for bringing culture to rural areas is to directly create culture in these spaces. This is what the youth of Selva del Camp, a town of 5,800 inhabitants in Baix Camp, are trying to do. For the past two years, they've organized Injerto, a live arts festival. To carry it out, they receive grants from the Tarragona Provincial Council and the City Council, as well as through a patronage campaign among the town's businesses. The festival only lasts one day, and its main objective is to involve the town's people, from the elderly to the children from the music school, who end up performing on stage. "We work primarily on the community aspect," explains one of the organizers. In his view, "there's a demand for small festivals that involve the town's people."

The Department of Culture has recently changed the criteria for awarding subsidies to promote cultural activities throughout the country. Funding for events considered agrotourism has increased from 3.5 million euros biennially to 3 million euros annually. The other line of aid, which goes directly to micro-villages, has grown from 2.17 million euros biennially to 1.56 million euros annually. The increase is positive, but the fact that it is annual has also heightened uncertainty among organizers, who don't know until the last minute whether they will be able to access the funds. The Tarragona Provincial Council also has lines of aid that seek to prioritize smaller municipalities.