The XIX edition of the Festival ends its programming in La Gomera, where Vallehermoso has once again demonstrated the interest generated by cultural proposals created from the Canary Islands
The artist Luigi Stinga has made a spectacular wooden sculpture, located in the Almendrillo viewpoint, dedicated to the Canarian peasant woman.
Gomero whistle, chácaras and drum workshops, two round tables (on peasant women and the greatest references) and the musical proposals of Rizomas, Filigrana and Olga Cerpa and Mestisay have filled the Plaza del Ayuntamiento de Vallehermoso, from July 13 to 15.
The XIX Edition of the Atlántico Sonoro Festival has awarded its prize for the dissemination and strengthening of the culture created in the Canary Islands to Olga Cerpa and Mestisay, this Saturday, July 15, the day on which the artists offered the show Jallo, which fuses the influences from other territories with the music of our Archipelago. Emiliano Coello, mayor of Vallehermoso, and Carlos Prieto, director of the Festival, were in charge of presenting the award, in an act that took place in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento in Vallehermoso.
Music, conferences and workshops have come together to discuss culture and rurality in the 19th edition of the Atlantic Sound Festival, one of the most stable and solid in the Archipelago, in which diversity and the environment have also been very present. With free admission to all activities, the groups Rizomas, Filigrana and Olga Cerpa and Mestisay participated in this extensive program on La Gomera. In addition, workshops on silbo gomero, chácara and drum were given and two round tables were held related to the cultural heritage contributed by leading older people and peasant women, all activities with free admission. The Festival will continue, in the coming months, with activities on the islands of Tenerife and Lanzarote.
This new edition of the Festival, created and produced by Cauproges, is sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and Sports through the recovery, transformation and resilience plan with aid to expand and diversify the cultural offer in non-urban areas financed by the Union Union with NextGenerationEU funds. Also with the Government of the Canary Islands (through the Canarian Institute for Cultural Development and Promotur-Turismo de Canarias), the Island Council of La Gomera, and the Vallehermoso City Council. And with the collaboration of the La Oliva City Council, the Cotiarte Association, the Pluma Association, and the Silbo Gomero Cultural Association, and the Vallehermoso Senior Association.
From Vallehermoso, in La Gomera, Atlántico Sonoro has redeployed a program that combines the works and thoughts of creators and creators with the cultural heritage of our archipelago, from non-urban and decentralized contexts. In the organization of activities, priority is given to gender equality, diversity, sustainability and the circular economy. This 2023, Vallehermoso has once again demonstrated the interest generated by cultural proposals created from the Canary Islands.
Olga Cerpa y Mestisay
The 2023 Atlantic Sound Award went to the two-time Latin GRAMMY nominee, Olga Cerpa, and the legendary popular music group, Mestisay, who offered, as part of the Festival, the show Jallos, with a diverse repertoire that crosses the bridges that connect Africa, America and the Canary Islands.
Olga Cerpa is one of the most important Canarian female voices of recent times, who has shared the stage with artists of different origins and styles, such as Omara Portuondo, Joan Manuel Serrat, Julio Pereira or Milladoiro, among others.
For its part, Mestisay was born in 1978, as a Canarian popular song company and it was in 1981 when it published Taifa, the first album that includes traditional songs. This was followed by Sirinoque (1982); Romance del Corredera (1985), with the collaboration of the poet Pedro Lezcano Montalvo; and Canciones de Fiesta (1986), with the popular melodies of the festive folklore of the Canary Islands. Starting in 1988, the group took another direction and continued to publish records and perform, inside and outside the islands, up to the present day.
Rhizomes y Filigrana
The Festival's musical proposal began on Thursday, July 13, with the Rizomas concert, led by Rogelio Botanz and with the musicians Kino Ait Idrissen, Isa Estrada and Percútelas de Garaldea. This show is the result of meetings and residencies, experienced by the artists in La Gomera and in the Moroccan Atlas.
For its part, Filigrana carried out, on Friday the 14th, its investigation of the “borrowed” sounds that gave rise to Canarian folklore. Formed by the soloists Laura Álvarez and José Félix Álvarez, and the musicians Agustín González, Ignacio González and Gabriel Hernández, they make up the formation of rondalla, par