Summer is coming and with it the days of rest. I write days because it is becoming less common to add an entire month of vacation and disconnection. So the choice of books must be more careful. Also because the leisure offer is increasingly broader. That we are not going to encapsulate ourselves in reading as the only recreational tool. The truth is that, between gastronomy, summer festivals, television series, some cinema and routes to walls and castles, a typical gazetteer on the road, what seems like many days is reduced to a minimum. That an hour of entertainment is shorter than boredom.
Not to take time away from reading, but a summer with good festivals is a good summer. The list is suggestive. There is no corner of Spain, there is no corner of Europe, where there is not a good list of concerts or theatrical proposals. The closest to my youth is the Grec Festival in Barcelona, but also the Botanical Nights in Madrid, or the FIB in Benicàssim, or the Arenal Sound in Burriana – the relationship in Levante is long -, or the Mallorca Live Festival that It is like a prelude to ferragosto, or a long etcetera of a summery repertoire. In Europe, for theater lovers, I recommend the Avignon festival or the Edinburgh festival in Scotland, something broader in genres. And of course, in Germany, Bayreuther, that Wagnerian madness that should be mandatory to go through, and call me a snob. After a Nibelung immersion, one emerges new.
Each of these festivals has its own particularity. Those unique details remain lodged in memory, and those experiences become absolutely irreplaceable. Mine is at the Teatre Grec, an open-air theater space in the middle of Montjuïc mountain. The area is full of cats that meow at unexpected moments. It’s part of the show.
