The mayor of Yaiza, José Francisco Reyes, presented the festival program this Wednesday together with Benito Cabrera and Miguel Ángel Corujo, director and coordinator of the festival respectively.
The mayor said that it was a festival program for all ages and all interests and highlighted the presence of the festival that "started as something experimental and after a few years is fully consolidated." He pointed out that Yaiza has had "heralds from all branches, intellectuals, painters and journalists, and in this case it was the turn of a politician, Román Rodríguez Rodríguez, deputy of the Parliament of the Canary Islands and former president of the Government of the Canary Islands and president of the Environment Committee of the Congress of Deputies.
Luxury poster at the VIII Seguidilla Festival
Benito Cabrera, who in addition to being the director of the festival is a well-known Canary Islands timple player, said that "the festival is celebrating its eighth edition, when we never thought it would consolidate to become one of the firm bets of this Island for a high-quality folk festival, where the participating groups are not only the best voices of the islands, but also solo groups and leading formations in international folk."
He recalled that "last year, with the latest Amenabar film, Mar Adentro, whose soundtrack was so praised, just released, we had the author of that music, Carlos Núñez, at the festival", whose performance was followed by thousands of people from all the municipalities of Lanzarote. "This year we didn't want to lower the bar and we have two mythical formations within music at an international level."
Los Sabandeños
Los Sabandeños will come, "our most applauded, well-known and recognized group, the one that has added the most records sold in all of recording history, not only in the Canary Islands, but throughout the Spanish state, because it has remained for long decades selling many records." It is a group that from the beginning they wanted to bring to the festival and until now they had not been able to be.
"They were the first in the Canary Islands to make a dense work dedicated to Victor Fernández Gopar, the popular salt poet, with his album Seguidillas del Salinero (1977), which represents the deep knowledge of the work of this author," he said. Los Sabandeños will show their most recent works and also part of that work of the seguidillas.
Kepa Junquera
The other great guest star is Kepa Junquera, the young musician from Bilbao who with the trikitixas, a diatonic accordion that is also used in the Canary Islands, has crossed national borders with his music. Last year he won the precious Latin Grammy award for his latest album "K". He has traveled all over the world with his show and Cabrera recalled that "he has a very dense band with the performers of the txalaparta", a Basque percussion instrument composed of a variable number of wooden boards and always played in pairs. "It is a very attractive visual spectacle," he assured.
The director of the festival pointed out that "on other occasions we had done the festival with more participation of groups, and for two years we have chosen to minimize the number of participants, but that they were top figures on the poster of the moment; People of much more weight with longer-lasting shows." Regarding the soloists, he stated that "we have left the issue of the soloists fallow, who have been present during the past seven editions, and this year it will be the Parranda Janubio who will sing the couplets and it will be their own soloists who will represent the Island."
Activities for all tastes and all ages
The festivities will take place from September 1 to 10 and during this time there will be a multitude of cultural, religious, sports and recreational activities.
On September 1, the Los Remedios festivities will be officially inaugurated with the reading of the pregón and will conclude on the 10th of the same month, with the Luchada between singles and married men followed by the Traditional Asadero on the esplanade of the municipal football field.
During that time there are scheduled children's and adult games, festivals with musical performances among which the Trio Zapatista stands out, painting exhibitions, big-head workshops, plays, dessert contests, parades with batucada and piñata, meeting of elders, clay pigeon shooting, play-back performances, great fireworks display and even a Play-Station contest.
Romería
We must not forget the religious festivals that take place, perhaps without so much noise and publicity, but with a wide following among the residents of the municipality. Saturday, September 3 will be the day of the Romería in honor of the Virgen de Los Remedios with the presence of dromedaries from Timanfaya and numerous folk groups from Lanzarote and the Canary Islands.
On Monday, September 5, the religious Triduum will begin, until Thursday, September 8, the festivity of Los Remedios, will be the solemn religious function with the image of the Virgin accompanied by the Municipal Band of Yaiza. This day will conclude with a comedy show, with the Trío Zapatista and music and the spectacular fireworks display over the sky of Yaiza. Young people will be the protagonists on Friday the 9th.
The Yaiza City Council has programmed for this day the III El Desafío Meeting with the performance of several rock groups, including the stellar performance of the group Dover. On Friday, September 9, the residents of Yaiza will be able to attend the mass for the deceased.
