The Arrecife en Vivo festival is going on tour around the islands of Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, and Tenerife with a live performance by the Galician artist Grande Amore and a competition featuring artists such as Modofocoide, the producer and rapper Jeristenia, and the DJs Keroi (Alvaro's alter ego from Chocolate Sexy) and Chk. It's the AEV'23 On Tour, which brings the Lanzarote festival's brand on the road to various stages across the archipelago in the countdown to the inauguration of the festival's tenth edition on September 22nd.
La Tierra venue, in Puerto del Rosario, Fuerteventura, is the first stop of AEV'23 On Tour this Saturday, September 2nd, at 9:00 PM with free admission, where there will be a party filled with scratching and turntablism by Jeristenia, DJ Keroi, and DJ Chk; and the following weekend, on Friday the 8th, Arrecife en Vivo's island tour knocks on the doors of Alboroto venue in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria with a live performance by Grande Amore, a cocktail of punk, techno, and electropop fronted by Nuno Pico; and the Gran Canaria trio Modofocoide, at 9:00 PM; and on Saturday, September 9th at Aguere Cultural, in La Laguna, Tenerife, with Grande Amore and other guests.
"The AEV on Tour is for them to get to know us on other islands and promote the festival's brand," explains Semi Gil, director of Arrecife en Vivo. "The project started in 2013 to become today an urban festival with deep roots in Lanzarote and with remarkable national and international projection," they say in a press release. In these three AEV Tour 23 events, in addition to live music and DJ sets, the public will be able to participate in a raffle for a trip for two people, which includes flights and two nights of hotel; and four tickets for the tenth-anniversary party of Arrecife en Vivo in each of the three presentation islands.
Three trips for two people on any of the four weekends of the festival, and two nights of hotel: and four double tickets for the special 10th-anniversary concert of Arrecife en Vivo, which is held on September 23rd in the bay of Arrecife.
The Galician artist Grande Amore is the main act on the dates of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, on Friday the 8th and Saturday the 9th. A name behind which Nuno Pico peeks, who plays with pop, rock and roll, techno, and 80s industrial electronics and punk. After a series of previous singles and EPs, Grande Amore presented his self-titled debut in 2021, with the Galician label Ernie Records. Nine songs in which he describes himself as an artist and person, life pills of a twenty-year-old who sings shamelessly and heartbreakingly to his entire generation in his mother tongue. Themes like Esta pena que a veces teno, Perdón por ser tan sexy, Jorge Martínez, cásate conmigo (porfa) or Non sei cantar, are some of his captivating pieces, where echoes of Stooges, Joy Division, DAF or Jet, among other references and obvious samples, sneak in.
Galician tradition
"A regenerating proposal in the purest Galician underground rock tradition," according to his record label, which continues to add triumphs and release new songs to warm up the audience and the dance floor. Do meu corpo van nacer outros corpos and Pelea, both from this year, are the most recent sound creatures of Grande Amore along with Onde ela me quer lavar, advance of what will be the next album and one of the most special themes of the new album, II. In this theme, Grande Amore leans towards pop with a piece that speaks of love.
Onde ela me quer levar, produced by Carlangas – Novedades Carminha –, has nothing to do with previous advances. Grande Amore shows off his versatility and now goes further. Faster, higher, and clearer. More than 3 minutes of pure intensity, from the first to the last bar. Onde ela me quer levar is a theme in which to discover yourself wiggling your body, jumping, dancing.
Along with Grande Amore, at the Alboroto venue will be on Friday the 8th, from 9:00 PM, the Gran Canaria band Modofocoide. A three-piece nonsense in electro-punk key formed by three old acquaintances of the local music scene of Gran Canaria, who since the end of 2017 have toured a large part of the Canary venues such as La Grulla (Lanzarote), Vórtice (Tenerife), or the Rock&Books festival.
They have an arsenal of hits included in their first self-edited EP Antes, todo esto eran plataneras (2019), and in their latest digital album En Desconcierto (2023), recorded live in El Sótano Analógico and available on Bandcamp. Their influences are a good wild potage that ranges from Siniestro Total, Devo, Mr.Oizo, or the Canary duo Malaspecto, with whom they have shared the stage on several occasions.
Ten years of Arrecife en Vivo
The Arrecife en Vivo festival celebrates its tenth anniversary in 2023 with four concert routes, in a circuit of two pedestrian kilometers by the sea, on September 22nd and 29th, and October 6th and 13th, to which is added a fifth day on Saturday, September 23rd, in the bay of Arrecife, with a special concert for the anniversary and a poster featuring El Drogas with the show Barricada 40º, Def Con Dos, Hamlet, Lady Banana, Serial Killerz and Sickmen. It is the only day of paid concerts, and the tickets are on sale.
The Arrecife en Vivo 2023 program begins on September 22nd with an opening menu featuring Cantera Rock, Akelarre, Calva Louise, Desakato and the Rockalean parade. After the extraordinary concert on the 23rd, the groups La Jaula del Canario, Space Surimi, R de Rumba & Carlos Porcel, Tote King, Dj Chk, and the Kolpez Blai parade take over on September 29th. The third weekend of ARV 23 arrives on October 6th with ̶Y̶a̶ ̶N̶o̶ Te Quiero , Baldosa, Los Estanques y Anni B Sweet, Alizz and Yera Flavor. The closing day of the tenth anniversary is October 13th with Free Women, Doctor Explosion, Niña Polaca, Ácido Pantera and Cheese & Bacon Djs.
"We have resisted a multitude of political changes and we are part of the idiosyncrasy of Arrecife," points out Semi Maneiro on the eve of the inauguration of the tenth edition of the festival. According to him, "during these ten years, which have been eleven with a blank edition that was the one of the covid pandemic, we have had more than 200 bands between international, national and Canarian, in different stages that have been installed in various spaces of the Arrecife marina, always next to the sea, in the squares, in the streets, in the docks, and I think there is no place left in Arrecife where we have set up a stage."
More than 20 kilometers of parades in a decade with the great Buli Panés as a reference, who takes the public from stage to stage so that the party does not decline. And more than 100,000 spectators of different nationalities and origins have attended the annual call of Arrecife en Vivo. "The foreign public who come expressly to the festival and who square their vacations on the dates of Arrecife en Vivo is increasingly numerous," highlights the direction of the festival.
In these ten years, the ARV festival has been awarded twice as best festival in Spain, in 2016 and 2019, and with the title of Distinguished of Tourism awarded by the Cabildo of Lanzarote for the work of promoting the Island and for a commitment to leisure tourism.
To the eclectic program of live music are added the workshops and masterclass for the training of professionals linked to the cultural industry and music in particular, AEV Training, with the philosophy of continuing to strengthen the fabric of the music industry of Lanzarote from its foundations. It is a series of professional courses to promote local talent launched this year, between April and July, with speakers of the stature of R de Rumba, Sifer, Javier Rosa, Lucas de Mulder, Acerina H. Toledo, DJ CHK and Diego Barber; and a screen that with the name of AEV Channel, "we highlight the protagonists of culture in Lanzarote, with 50 chapters in two editions," highlights Semi Gil.
"We could not be stopped, and during the pandemic we took all the musicians of the Island, both historical and current, and we decided to make some documentary pills that value our musical culture, because we must not forget our people, the ones we have next door. Next year 2024 we will do a third season with another 20 chapters," concludes Gil.
