The Encounters at Sea Festival has been held since 2005, demonstrating at all times its success over time, as well as the need for its existence, having tried to create cultural dialogues precisely on different shores of the sea, especially the existing relationship between Africa and Canary Islands, which on many occasions has been despised due to a historical issue. In addition, since 2008 it was decided to add the subtitle Diversity and Cultures, in this way, this space for conversation has not only been reduced to the cultural, but has also entered into dialogue with everything that expresses the heterogeneity that exists, not only within of the Canary Islands, but internationally. The next step that this festival has carried out in recent years after its consolidation, has been to add another subtitle naming it the Encounters at Sea Festival: Trans*culturalities. This decision was carried out with the intention that the festival opens up towards a more inclusive place and falls not only on cultural diversity, but also gives importance to diversity beyond the place of birth, also including issues of gender or sexual orientation.

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This evolution, which has occurred naturally, has always been based on cultural exchange, the main reason why the festival continues to invest. These meetings are not only carried out through dialogue, that is, through talks or workshops, but also offer a real cultural exchange including dance performances, theater or photography exhibitions. In short, his intention is for art to be the point of union between the different identities that will populate this festival and, therefore, to achieve in art a single language of communication between different existing realities that can create a sea of tolerance between different bodies. .

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The seventeen years of experience in this festival show not only a consolidation and the importance of continuing to celebrate future editions, but also the ability to adapt over time to the needs that appear and thus not understand the festival as a concept watertight, but as a living organism that changes over time, just as its objectives change, but that maintains its artistic essence and connection between people. For this reason, in this XVIII Encounters at Sea: Trans*culturalities Festival, we do not want to continue doing it without reflection, but also to evolve in this new edition that will once again demonstrate the consolidation of this project and its positive consequences.