The 7th edition of Acció Cultura Viva focusses on projects deeply rooted in the city

The 7th edition of Acció Cultura Viva, a collectively organised festival focusing on projects deeply rooted in the city and offering three Sant Andreu venues

Acció Cultura Viva is coming up to its seventh edition, with a programme based on an open call that drew in over six hundred proposals. There will also be a three-day space, from 22 to 24 September, offering activities and participatory workshops, an informal gathering discussing music-festival models, the Fira del Disc Independent [Indie Record Fair], several gastronomic spaces, radio programmes and plenty more.

Acció Cultura Viva aims to be a friendly space for every city resident and for all the artists and individuals involved in its organisation and making it possible. Acció Cultura Viva is a project collectively conceived, organised and produced by the city’s musical and cultural fabric, promoted by the Barcelona Institute of Culture and supported by the Department of Social and Solidarity Economy and Sustainable Food at Barcelona City Council and the Sant Andreu District.

The festival is opening in the neighbourhood

This year’s Acció Cultura Viva is relocating to several spaces in Sant Andreu, with its main one in Plaça de Can Fabra, provided a larger and roofed venue; and will be concluding in Nau Bostik, while networking with other Sant Andreu spaces. The Fabra i Coats complex will also remain an essential part: offering one venue at the Ateneu L’Harmonia’s terrace, another at the Creation Factory, and a workshop and chill-out area in two further parts of the complex.

A Barcelona-projects festival with lots of music genres

As for the selection of artists, the Programme and Activities committees have mostly opted for projects deeply rooted in the city, showing a large palette of colours, styles and genres keeping the city alive throughout the year.

Friday 22 marks the opening of a new location in Plaça de Can Fabra with a group of young women making words and urban rhythms the star attraction. There will be performances, in the following order, from L’Beel, Masta Quba and KYNE.

Saturday afternoon sees Escenari Fàbrica playing host to more intimate, experimental and daring performances from the solo project Coàgul, somewhere between industrial rave and religious mysticism; the precious electronica duo O’o; and, to round things off, Coure, featuring metal at its most powerful and free-jazz.

That same day will also include four presentations on the Ateneu L’Harmonia’s terrace: opening with Mukti, a journey between the music of India and flamenco, followed by three groups with Marta Knight’s gentle indie, Alison Darwin’s rock with attitude and, to finish, irreverence, punk and party in equal measure from Ruïnosa y las Strippers de Rahola.

In addition, there will also be activities at Espai Sònic, including a silk-screen-printing workshop with L’Automàtica’s campaigns; a Makey Makey sound workshop from the Ciutat Meridiana Fab Lab, and a talk and musical performance from the Chicazos de Pollet collective on the Drag King movement.

The Saturday event will eventually move to the square, with eclecticism as its hallmark: paying homage to the brothers from Senegal and Gambia with KAÏRO BAND; followed by rock with touches of current electronica, coming especially from Donosti, from Merina Gris; reaffirming the message, the groove, and the community commitment to Rodrigo Laviña y su Combo; and finishing the night with Puerto Rican bombshell, Marina y su Melao.

And Acció Cultura Viva will conclude on Sunday at Nau Bostik, reclaiming self-management, with a festival finale to suit every kind of audience, starting at 12 noon. With the now classic Fira del Disc Independent: a jazz-flamenco concert with the saxophonist Alba Alsina; unstoppable salsero sounds with invariably necessary and protest lyrics of Spanish punk with The SALSA PUNK Orkestra; and ending with a DJ and corps de ballet from DYAMISE SQUAD, who will be playing dancehall, dembow, afro beats, hip-hop, techno tropical, funk, cumbia… a festival finale chock-a-block with dancing!