Porta Ferrada (Girona) summer festival small but growing

One festival, many options: Porta Ferrada brings major artists to Costa Brava beach resort | Spain’s summers are chock-full of festivals, and choosing can be difficult—often the most in-demand artists will make a “summer festival tour,” meaning many programs sound alike.


While Porta Ferrada cannot compete in numbers with major festivals such as Grec in Barcelona or Veranos de la Villa in Madrid, attendance has been steadily on the rise, with 14,000 people stopping off at the Girona resort last year. Artists who have performed here in the past include a long list of international stars such as Chick Corea, Michael Nyman or Al Jarreau.

Like many other interdisciplinary festivals, Porta Ferrada favors the performing arts, with a special focus on music ranging from jazz to chamber music. Joe Cocker opened this year’s festival on July 6, and the August bill includes performances by the veteran Spanish singer-songwriters Joan Manuel Serrat and Joaquín Sabina, the Israeli singer Noa, Mali’s afro-pop star Salif Keita (“The Golden Voice of Africa”) and the choir of the Saint Petersburg Chapel.

Dance performances are few and far between, but they include acts by the Ballet de Víctor Ullate and the New York City Ballet. Ullate, one of Spain’s most respected contemporary dancers and choreographers, is putting on a personal version of the classical ballet Coppelia, while soloists from the New York troupe will perform Stravinsky’s Les noces.