The event took place last night at the St. Trop discotheque in front of the main cultural entities of the municipality.
Over the first six months, around one hundred activities are scheduled to take place.
Lloret de Mar, 14 January 2023 - Last night Lloret presented the first events of Lloret as Capital of Catalan Culture 2023. The Mayor of Lloret, Jaume Dulsat, stressed that the celebration of Lloret as Catalan Capital of Culture 2023 is both a challenge for Lloret and an opportunity to promote Lloret's culture from a local perspective. We have a year ahead of us to showcase all the artistic disciplines that coexist in Lloret," said Dulsat, "and to showcase the quality of Lloret's cultural fabric. During the first six months of the year there are around one hundred cultural activities scheduled, which can be consulted on the website www.ccclloret.cat.
Presentation of the first events at the Sant Trop discotheque
Mayor Dulsat explained that "from the outset, Lloret has wanted to show that it is a city unlike any other capital city. That it has certain characteristics that make it different and that this needs to be highlighted as an identifying and distinctive feature".
Also, one of the central themes of Lloret as Capital of Catalan Culture 2023 will be to take certain activities out of context with the aim of highlighting and emphasising their value. The St Trop discotheque, recently awarded as one of the best discotheques in the world and a symbol for different generations of Lloret residents, was thought to be the ideal venue for this first presentation. 4 February, Verbena de la Capital.
The first proper event of the Capital of Catalan Culture 2023 will be on Saturday 4 February, when La Verbena de la Capital is scheduled. All of Lloret's cultural organisations will come together for a morning to showcase their activities and make themselves known to the people of Lloret. The Councillor for Culture, Cristian Fernández, explained that "we wanted to give Lloret's organisations a chance to take part in Lloret's first event as Capital of Catalan Culture".
The programme of activities for the first four months of the year will be distributed on 4 February. Two further issues will follow: from May to September, and the final issue will cover the activities scheduled from October to December. Apart from the activities, the publication will also include articles and reports related to the culture of Lloret. The publication will also be posted on the website in pdf format.
The cornerstones of Lloret's cultural capital. We are what we celebrate
Under the slogan, We are what we celebrate, the main themes of Lloret as Capital of Catalan Culture 2023 are: We are what we dance, We are what we sing, We are what we share, We are what we imagine, We are what we defend and We are what we are grateful for.
Within the axis, We are what we dance will include all activities linked to dance and movement. In the axis We are what we sing, all the activities linked to music and song will be programmed. We are what we share includes activities related to plastic expressions, cultural heritage, literature, conferences, etc. The axis We are what we imagine includes activities related to live arts and visual arts. We are what we defend will be used to include all those activities related to sexual and gender freedom and, finally, We are what we are grateful for will be used at the end of the Capital to highlight a year of cultural proposals.
Inaugural event: aerial dance performance by the company Les Estampades, with the participation of Lloret's bogadors.
The Town Hall Square is the venue chosen for the inaugural event of Lloret as Catalan Capital of Culture 2023. An aerial dance performance by the Girona-based company Les Estampades has been commissioned. This company specialises in physical work and body research, fusing dance, theatre and circus in order to develop its shows, which are adapted to suit each space. They will be directed by Sergi Ots of the Ponten pie company and will incorporate choreography by various representatives of Lloret's rowing clubs.
The Commissioner of the Capital of Catalan Culture, Amaranta Gibert, stressed that the idea of incorporating the rowing boats into the inaugural event of Lloret as Capital of Catalan Culture "is a way of paying tribute to the fishermen of Lloret and the link that Lloret has had throughout history with the sea".
Lloret beach was one of the places where the fishing gear was most acclaimed, as was the caro, which was a boat typical of these places. In Lloret, the caros were also called llaguts, hence the boat's current name. Moreover, the llaguts lloretencs are the ones that were incorporated into the Santa Cristina maritime procession, which is the origin of the S'amorra amorra regatta. "We believed that the inauguration of Lloret as the Capital of Catalan Culture deserved this recognition and appreciation of the boatmen".
Cycle of reflection, "Debat a bat".
One of the activities promoted on the occasion of the Capital of Culture will be debates. Under the name Debat a bat, six debates have been scheduled with the aim of reflecting on and highlighting various topics such as theatre, summer holidays in Lloret, the 500th anniversary of the parish church of Sant Romà and cinema, among others. The peculiarity of these debates is that they will be held in unconventional venues and will be recorded and posted on the Capital of Culture website so that everyone can retrieve them at any time.
Exhibition dedicated to Joan Sala Lloberas
As part of the programme dedicated to history and heritage, on 30 March there will be an exhibition dedicated to Joan Sala Lloberas, a fisherman, self-taught writer and painter from Lloret who portrayed, in writing and with his brushes, the seaside atmospheres, customs and traditions of his hometown.
Lloret and poetry
The aim of the Catalan Capital of Culture is to link Lloret to poetry and promote it. For this reason, various projects are being prepared to promote the value of poetry. A number of poetry-related activities have been scheduled. The first will be on 21 March, World Poetry Day, when the Poets on Call initiative will be launched, in which anyone who has requested it in advance will receive a call that day from a poet who will recite a poem related to Lloret.
Also, in conjunction with the LEAD association and the Library, a special edition of the Radical Poetry event will be held, as well as a closing event dedicated to LLORET FEMINIST CITY with the show EROS AND THANATOS with piano, flute and rhapsodic rhapsody.
Xavier Albertí, playwright and theatre director from Lloret, will open the tour of the show Don Ramón María del Valle Inclán.
The show Don Ramón María del Valle Inclán directed by the playwright and director from Lloret, Xavier Albertí, will open its tour of Catalonia on 14 April at the Teatre de Lloret. And on 5 November, under Albertí's direction, the show El cuerpo más bonito que se habrá encontrado nunca en este sitio (The most beautiful body ever found in this place), starring Pere Arquillué, will be staged.
The sardana is modernised, La "pubilla" of Lloret
The Lloret musicians Manel Alsina and Marta Romeu, known artistically as Tramma, have covered the sardana La pubilla de Lloret. It is a pop version of a sardana from 1926 that they want to make into the song of the Capital of Catalan Culture. The song was premiered last night, during the presentation of the events.