As every year, the Festival’s programme will occupy emblematic venues in Valencia such as the Plaza de la Virgen, the NAU Cultural Centre, the CCCC Centro del Carmen Cultura Contemporánea and the Teatre Talia, with the support of the Generalitat, the City Council and the University of Valencia, as well as the consular authorities of Argentina and Uruguay. The 5th edition of the València International Tango Festival, to be held from 25 to 29 May 2023, will have the slogan “Tango is Art and is part of it”, dedicating its interesting programme to the Valencian painter Joaquín Sorolla on the centenary of his death, which will occupy different theatrical proposals.

Art, explain the organisers of this cultural event, “as a subjective factor is ephemeral and is felt or transmitted through a discipline as the fruit of that first feeling. Sorolla painted these moments quickly, as he himself said, he could not conceive of any other way of capturing them. Tango in its different expressions also speaks to us of this impulse and hence the passion that characterises it”.

The aim of the València Tango Festival  continues to be to spread this now universal genre to all kinds of audiences.  This will show the richness of its music, its dance, its poetry, its pictorial and visual art through different artistic proposals. At present, it is one of the few Tango Festivals in Europe that goes beyond the dance meetings or milongas, and is growing in followers year after year. Indeed, Valencia is part of the International Tango Route and is one of the main Tango festivals in the world.

In this way it shares the culture of this genre originating from the River Plate, with the great cultural offer offered by Valencia, to whom it reaches out its hand every time to unite these two shores in order to add proposals of great scenic level and to contribute the talent and mastery of the different artists dedicated to Tango, both local and arriving from different places.

The festival programme

The Festival’s programme will start on 25 May, with the presentation of this edition in the Sala Refectori of the CCCC Centro del Carmen Cultura Contemporánea, where you can enjoy music and dance performances with artists from the Festival, and with free admission until full capacity is reached.

On Thursday 25th and Friday 26th, the legendary Café Mercedes Jazz will host two concerts with two different proposals and top artists.

At La Nau Cultural Centre on Friday 26 May in the afternoon, two free Tango and Argentine Folklore workshops will be offered, and at La Nau itself, the Capilla de la Sapiencia will host a Tango concert on the 27th at 12:00 noon with free admission.

Every day there will be milongas for dance lovers, for which the active milongas of Valencia will join in, with the “Gran Milonga de las Dos Orillas” to be held on Sunday morning as is traditional every year in the beautiful Plaza de la Virgen, and in the afternoon the “Milonga de Gala del Festival” to be held in the Sala Refectori of the CCCC Centro del Carmen Cultura Contemporánea, with an Argentine DJ and live orchestra.

Monday 29th May will be the big day which will take place at the Teatre Talia and will bring the Festival to a close with more than 15 artists on stage, including dancers, musicians and singers, in a gala that will be presented once again this year by the communicators Ana Mar Vila and Vicente Alventosa.

The Asociación Cultural Berretin de Buenos Aires has been working in Valencia for more than 20 years in different projects related to the diffusion of Tango.  With the help of its founders and directors, Analía Bueti and Vicente Vinagre, who are responsible for this great Tango Festival. This is already part of the cultural heritage of the city of Valencia and places it among its emerging festivals. The images of the Festival were designed by the company Tanguismos  giving actuality to this genre that evolves to maintain its validity without losing its essence.

Report by Will McCarthy

Article copyright ‘24/7 Valencia’

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