The Arrecife en Vivo festival, sponsored by the Arrecife City Council, through the Department of Tourism, has been shortlisted among the 10 best Medium Format festivals in Spain and Portugal at the Iberian Festival Awards 2023. In 2016 it already won the award for Best Small Format Festival in Spain and in 2019 it won it again in the superior category.
The mayor of Arrecife, Astrid Pérez, congratulates "all those who make this Festival possible in which the city of Arrecife becomes a gigantic concert venue for the enjoyment of residents and visitors and produces a great economic impact on the Island during the days it is held." She has also wished them good luck at the gala on March 11 in Porto and hopes that "the name of our city sounds loud and clear."
Arrecife en Vivo is selected as a finalist in two categories that the awards give to the best festivals in the Iberian Peninsula: Medium Format Festival and Best Cultural Program.
Both finals will take place on March 11 within the Talkfest cycle – International Music Festivals Forum in Cidade da Maia (Grand Auditorium of the Cultural Forum) in Porto, by the jury, made up of a panel of professionals from the music industry sector in Spain and Portugal.
It should be noted that these international awards recognize the contributions and achievements of festival organizers and cultural industry agents in 2022. The initiative aims to promote Iberian relations, optimize, grow and put into operation effective dyads between the two countries.
Arrecife en Vivo is characterized by its original format that differentiates it from the rest of the festivals on the planet, being the only one of its kind. Four concerts spread throughout the streets of Arrecife for four Fridays, turning the public space where citizens carry out their daily lives into live music spaces, and which return to their usual state a few hours after the parade that unites the different stages with Buli and his entourage at the front.
A festival that produces a significant economic impact on the island since the city of Arrecife becomes a gigantic concert venue, and accommodation establishments, hospitality services, shops and transportation see their income increase considerably on the dates on which the festival takes place.
Medium Format Festival of Spain 2022
To help quantify the importance of this award, it should be noted that in 2022 a total of 41 festivals from Spain and Portugal were presented in this category and that Arrecife en Vivo is among the 10 finalists.
This award has already been obtained in 2016 and 2019, being the only Canary Island festival to achieve the absolute category of Best Festival in Spain in its format, not once, but twice.
Arrecife en Vivo is thus proclaimed as one of the best 5 Medium Format festivals in Spain of 2022 in this absolute category, which is decided by public vote initially and in the final phase by decision of the jury, with the possibility of proclaiming itself as the best festival in the Iberian Peninsula.
Best Cultural Program
On the other hand, by decision of the jury of the Iberian Festival Awards, Arrecife en Vivo is in the final of the Best Cultural Program category. The parallel activity created by the festival called AEV CHANNEL, where the protagonists of the musical culture of Lanzarote are valued and the countless actions to support the young quarry of musicians on the island, are the reasons why they are in the final of this category.
"The Arrecife festival has been held since 2013 in this town and since then it has become a national benchmark, obtaining awards inside and outside the island, among which are the aforementioned in the international Iberian Festival Awards in 2016 and 2019, or the Distinguished Tourism Award 2020, in the category 'Event, cultural or sports events', an award that grants the Island Council through Turismo Lanzarote and the Sociedad de Promoción Exterior de Lanzarote, in addition to participating in several finals of the Canary Islands Music Awards"; they conclude from the Consistory.
