Barcelona Metropolis

A city festival

The Festival Grec came into being in 1976 in a spirit of protest, as a call for freedom after almost forty years of social, ideological and cultural suffocation. Not only did it mark the departure from a form of theatre made official by the previous regime, but it also brought about the definitive recovery of the Teatre Grec as a summer stage: inaugurated in 1929 (although it was built six years earlier), the Montjuïc theatre was a witness – at times, an active one, and at other times, a silent one – to the city’s social, political and cultural evolution. From the turmoil of the Spanish Second Republic, from the darkness of the Franco regime, from the private or institutional endeavours to breathe life into a scene that suffered extended periods of oblivion and neglect.

The faun had not yet made an appearance on the poster of what would become the first edition of the Festival Grec (created by Iago Pericot), but the festival’s connection with the people, its commitment to local talent, its opening up to the outside world and artistic freedom have survived since then in the great summer performing arts event in Barcelona. The Festival Grec always kicks off the programme at the theatre that gives the festival its name, but it later spreads throughout the city: decentralisation has been one of the principles of the festival’s programme for years, an idea that ties in with the commitment to advocating for citizen’s cultural rights fostered by municipal policies. Community centres, libraries, museums, creation factories, the network of libraries… The idea of “community building” takes on real meaning in this festival through participatory projects, workshops and artistic laboratories. “It is a line of work that seeks to be highly diversified”, explains the festival’s director. “There are open rehearsals, more reflection-oriented activities, community projects... They are different sections with a common strategy for the Festival Grec to go as far as possible.” New forms of participation that broaden the social foundation of audiences and ensure the democratisation of access to culture.

“Weaving is intertwining many threads. We want to weave a garment the size of the city. We must make a festival that benefits Barcelona and breathes new life into it. To this end, we are committed to creating a model that is appealing not only on account of its – essential – line-up of names, but also because of its artistic value, the series of national and international alliances, the number of agents and sectors involved, citizens’ participation and involvement and its rigour and consistency”, wrote Casadesús in the presentation of his artistic venture. The stocktaking of the editions held attests to the strength of this fabric: that of 2021, still subject to the rigours and protocols of the pandemic (with reduced seating capacity and the cancellation or readaptation of events and activities), more than one hundred thousand spectators experienced the Festival Grec, which concluded its tour of the world’s cultures with the satisfaction of having completed the planned itinerary. Not even the adverse circumstances of 2020 stood in the journey’s way. “I felt we couldn’t throw in the towel, we had to fight, like every sector did”, recalls the director. “There was political support, and flexibility on the part of the team and the artists to adapt the programme to the situation. Even the audience protested so that the Festival Grec was not cancelled that year.”

Nevertheless, the journey will keep going in the years 2022 and 2023, although its coordinates will no longer be spatial, but temporal: focusing on Europe, the Festival Grec 2022 will perform a review of fundamental texts from the culture of the ancient world, classic works that will be approached from a contemporary perspective, while the 2023 edition will look to the future. Seeing where we come from to get a sense of where we are going: this is where the new journey is headed.

Support for creation

Discovering, disseminating and promoting local artistic talent and networks is another of the focal points of the Festival Grec. And, as far as this goal is concerned, the current head of the festival alludes to the highly diversified nature again to explain that support for local creation is not a temporary undertaking, but rather an on-going effort. “We don’t want this support to be fireworks, we want to see that there are artists who have grown thanks to the festival, who afford it meaning as such. And it’s not about giving a list of names, the Festival Grec has many layers, many levels, and must be looked at as a whole”, he asserts. “Institutions need to help the creative network and promote it,” concludes the director.

The co-production policy (amounting to thirty-four this year) is one of the channels that helps local companies and artists to grow. Another one is the promotion of the initiative “On el teatre batega” [Where the Theatre Beats] by Teatres de proximitat, a dozen small-format theatres committed to emerging productions. The Festival Grec 2020, which on its world tour had to stop in Latin America, foresaw the participation of all these theatres in the programme, to which it wanted to afford visibility (modelled on the strong network of local theatres in Buenos Aires). Obviously, the Covid-19 crisis prevented the planned collaboration from going ahead, but they were encouraged to work together to propose alternative, virtual activities within the festival. Cooperation with this network, born at a time of uncertainty and now firmly established, has been kept up till this day. In fact, this year will see a series of dramatised readings, some of which could become productions at the Festival Grec 2023.

Weaving networks

An event as captivating and outstanding as the Festival Grec must feature among Europe’s major summer performing arts events. The festival’s internationalisation has been an objective shared by those who have directed it since its outset. Given the tours that took the festival to Athens (2017), Singapore (2018), from Melbourne to New York (2019), Latin America (2020) and Africa (2021), the goal has undoubtedly been accomplished. Research confirms the acclaim of the Festival Grec, and the programming of shows such as Una imagen interior [An Image from the Inside], by El Conde de Torrefiel, co-produced by the festival alongside Avignon, the Wiener Festwochen and the Kunstenfestivaldesarts, make it visible: the collaboration between Barcelona, Avignon, Vienna and Brussels allows exchange strategies to be developed that, once again, speak of the Barcelona summer festival’s support for local creation and its presence beyond Catalonia. After all, El Conde de Torrefiel, a laboratory for experimentation and reflection in the realm of the performing arts, began in the city’s off-circuit and is now one of the most internationally renowned companies in Catalonia.

Besides these alliances, which have made it possible for local artists to show their creations around the world, they refer us once again to one of the most recurrent concepts when we consider the Festival Grec’s artistic mission to intertwine threads and weave networks. A network is stronger and tougher than a thread, which is why the festival has devoted time and effort to pooling collaborations and creating networks. And not only on a large scale (abroad), but also on a small scale (within Catalonia), with organisations such as the Gremi de Llibreters de Catalunya [the Booksellers’ Guild of Catalonia]. The creation of networks allows a project to thrive fully, regardless of its magnitude. Rewarding points of connection can result from the dialogue and cooperation between institutions and organisations (public or private). We must take advantage of the entrepreneurial assets of cultural agents and other projects and festivals to bring about, promote and support initiatives: this is another of the strategic directions of the modern Festival Grec. And one of the obsessions (in a positive sense) of its artistic manager.