The Arrecife City Council successfully managed to recover the 'Concert by Candlelight' this Saturday, with a large audience, where eighty people performed on a stage set up on twelve pontoons in the central area of the Charco de San Ginés.
The concert, recovered for the island by the City Council led by Mayor Yonathan de León, was followed by more than three thousand people. The City Council enabled two thousand seats, including seats and stands, plus about a thousand people who witnessed it along the César Manrique promenade, which borders the bank of the capital's pond. The entire perimeter of this area of the pond, like Morro La Elvira, was illuminated with the light of a thousand candles.
Punctually, at 9:30 p.m., the performance of the Lanzarote Classical Orchestra (OCL) began, offering a masterful interpretation, together with the Choir of the Reyes Barlet Association. As commented by the manager of the OCL, Roberto Fuentes, after the completion of the concert, “it has been included in the celebration to commemorate the 225th anniversary of the founding of the municipality of Arrecife, right in this unique enclave of the Charco de San Ginés.
This fifth edition of the Concert by Candlelight, recovered after its absence since 2017, has been possible thanks to the direct commitment of the city's mayor, Yonathan de León, and the Councilor for Tourism, Eli Merino, a department that has directly coordinated all the organization so that this event could be carried out, included in addition to the commemoration of the municipality, in the revitalization plans to relaunch Arrecife.
The manager of the OCL, who jumped into the water after the entire performance, “thanked the decisive support of the Arrecife City Council, its mayor Yonathan de León, and the Councilor for Tourism, Eli Merino, in the recovery and organization of this classical music event”. Roberto Fuentes opted to include this celebration in the annual program of events carried out by the Arrecife City Council.
Last night's performance, in the Chaco de San Ginés, featured the participation of 42 choir members, 29 musicians and 4 soloists under the direction of maestro José María Vicente, who has directed - among others - the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra. The choir was formed by the Reyes Barlet group, directed by José Hijar, director of the choir. and the musicians of the Lanzarote Classical Orchestra, who for about 45 minutes performed Mozart's Requiem.
This edition also featured performances by baritone Augusto Brito, soprano Satomi Morimoto, and tenor Carlos Javier Méndez, along with the intervention of Silvia Zorita, disseminator of the lyrical world on the TV Canarias program “Somos Gente Fantástica“.
After the completion of the concert, in which the president of the Parliament of the Canary Islands, and former mayor of the city, Astrid Pérez, was present among the attendees, the capital's first mayor, Yonathan de León, declared to the media present “the municipal group that he chairs works to revitalize the city and proof of this commitment are the many, and good events that are being organized in the capital of Lanzarote. Many of them organized directly by the City Council, and others are by firms that have public sponsorship, or the support of other administrations and are developed in public spaces of Arrecife”.
The mayor detailed that, for the Concert by Candlelight, where the public has responded with their great attendance, there was the collaboration of some 60 volunteers from the OCl, to whom he thanked for their support and willingness.
Yonathan de León expressed his congratulations to the Councilor for Tourism, Eli Merino, and to all the staff of her Arrecife Tourism department for managing to close the organization of this event in a short space of time so that this November could be witnessed by all the number of public present in the Charco de San Ginés.
For her part, the Councilor for Tourism, Commerce and Sports, Eli Merino, highlighted that she will continue to promote many more events and activities for the revitalization of Arrecife as the epicenter of leisure and healthy living in Lanzarote.
After the lively night in El Charco, the revitalization activity moved to the other end of the Arrecife seafront where the new edition of Noches de Fermina took place, sponsored by the Arrecife City Council, through Arrecife Tourism (the Department of Tourism), and developed in the facilities of Islote de La Fermina, next to El Reducto.
