New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble is already sold out and several concerts on the 27th and 28th are close to being full! The MUV! Festival reaches its decisive week. On February 27th and 28th, the Poblados Marítimos will experience the grand finale weekend of its VIII edition, with around twenty activities spread across different spaces in the neighborhood and especially reduced capacities, leaving several concerts with very few tickets available.

The organization confirms that the New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble concert on Friday the 27th has already posted the sold out sign. Other sessions are progressing very well, so it is recommended not to wait until the last minute. The festival’s format – based on neighborhood spaces and close experiences between artists and the public – limits capacity, but reinforces the intensity of each event.

The boost in this final stretch comes after two days that have confirmed the festival’s momentum. On February 19th, the Teatre El Musical reached full capacity with 200 people at the official opening. Maria Carbonell Blues Mood’s performance left the audience on their feet after a vibrant night of blues and rhythm & blues that confirmed the band’s excellent artistic moment.

On Saturday the 21st in the morning, MUV!’s first time at the Pergola of the Marina brought together about 1,000 people in more than two hours of live music. Aurora & The Betrayers deployed their powerful analog-sounding soul and R&B, while Helen Helen offered a burst of rock and country with American roots with overwhelming energy, both formations delivering a very high-level show.

That same day, at 5 p.m., the Centre Cultural Escorxador del Cabanyal hosted the round table Valencia Music City, integrated into the live recording of the Radio Malva podcast. Moderated by Alfonso Moreira, the conversation brought together Juan Pablo Valero – responsible for the Valencia Music City strategy from the Valencia City Council -, Sergi Almiñana (El Caimán Producciones), cultural programmer Amadeu Sanchís and Lorenzo Donvito (MUV! Festival). The session highlighted some of the strategic lines that the future Valencia Music City office should develop to strengthen the city’s musical ecosystem.

With that context, Friday, February 27th, will mark the beginning of the central days with simultaneous concerts that reflect the diversity of the festival: Anna Dukke will bring her mix of blues and soul to Burning House; the Martín i Soler Philharmonic Orchestra will bring classical music closer to La Fábrica de Hielo; the already sold out New York Ska-Jazz Ensemble will deploy its explosive fusion of ska and jazz at the Sociedad Musical Poblados Marítimos, followed by Baodub’s Dub to Jungle electronic session; and Valencian Andrés Belmonte, in quartet format, will present his project of dialogue between the Valencian tradition and Arab and Mediterranean music at the TEM, together with composer and multi-instrumentalist Efrén López, specialized in Mediterranean and Oriental music.

Saturday the 28th will combine daytime and nighttime programming. The Centre Cultural Escorxador del Cabanyal will host the A dos pasos illustration fair, accompanied by the groove and manouche jazz of the LUQ trio. At the Centre Cultural Reina 121 there will be a musical composition workshop based on the body as an instrument, and you can visit the exhibition Las penas se van cantando, which opened on February 5th and is open until March 2nd. La Fábrica de Hielo will welcome Raízes, a children’s batucada project, while the Sociedad Musical Poblados Marítimos will bring together the Sedajazz Big Band Session, a benchmark of Valencian jazz, along with various swing and big band formations.

In the afternoon and evening, the tour will continue with proposals that cross styles and geographies: Umpah! (fusion of classical Indian music, jazz and funk), Le Grand Miércoles (surf, western and Jamaican roots), La Fiesta de la Rumba (Valencian rumba for dancing), Looping Greis (electronics, voice and body percussion), Migue De La Rosa and Yaíma Orozco, together with Jonás Estefen, exploring Cuban song between bolero, son and jazz. There will also be space for blues-rock with the Stevie Ray Vaughan Tribute by Triple Trouble, R&B and neo-soul reinterpretations by Blackbird Trio, and the vibrant closing of Ogún Afrobeat, one of the leading Afrobeat formations in Spain.

The VIII edition of MUV! thus consolidates a festival model rooted in the Poblados Marítimos and open to the entire city, which faces its final stretch with a growing public response and several venues about to hang the sold out sign.

MUV! has the collaboration of cultural entities of the City Council and the Generalitat of Valencia, neighborhood associations and shops, as well as the support of Caixa Popular, ACIPMAR, Cerveza Tyris and La Fantástica Soda.

 Report by ‘24/7 Valencia’ team

Article copyright 24/7 Valencia

More info and tickets: https://www.muvfest.com/