The programme of activities promoted by Barcelona City Council to accompany the celebration of the America’s Cup sailing competition, the Cultural Regatta, is coming to the Race Village at the Moll de la Fusta. With more than 24 free performances of local popular culture, street arts and music, the Cultural Regatta aims to be a showcase for the city’s artistic creativity during the celebration of the world sporting event.

America’s Cup, as Barcelona City Council’s Councillor for Culture and Creative Industries, Xavier Marcé, reminds us, is one of the greatest international sporting events, just as the Olympic Games were at the time. Once again, the city has wanted to ‘accompany [the competitions] with a display that we have called Cultural Regatta and that aims to create a sort of memory of what the Cultural Olympiad was: a great cultural event that accompanied a sporting event’. Is it perhaps a vocation of the city to add culture to sport? In any case, according to Marcé, it is a question of establishing ‘a point of connection between citizens and the worlds of culture and sport’.

From 30 August to 17 October, Race Village of Louis Vuitton 37th America’s Cup at Moll de la Fusta will host musical and popular culture performances every Thursday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday at 7 p.m. and 8.30 p.m. onwards. The musical programme, curated by programmer Gisela Sais, is made up entirely of groups from the national music scene. The calendar of performances is as follows:

31/08: The Bird Yellow. A project by the Barcelona-born musician, producer and director Gerard Vidal Barrena. In vivo, he has a stage presence that generates very personal spaces of intimacy. The epic theatricality he uses plays with dramatic elements that make the performance unmissable.

1/09: Belascoaín Sextet. Four Cubans and two Catalans in love with songs and performing them collectively. A century of song in Cuba.

6/09: Whale Trip. This band formed by members of different music schools in Barcelona comes up with an original and energetic proposal with a repertoire of their own songs, covering different styles: funk, hip-hop, jazz and pop.

8/09: Xarim Aresté (on the picture). Through mountains and seas of folklore music, from jotas to mediterranean blues, from laugh to tears and offering plenty of poetry, this artist is the author of a unique and personal proposal that you should not miss.

13/09: Jaume Llombart Sextet.  One of the most creative and recognised guitarists, both nationally and internationally, and considered a versatile artist with his own language. He offers an avant-garde jazz repertoire that defies conventional musical forms.

14/09: Libérica. Manel Fortià returns home after four years in New York, the mecca of jazz, searching for common ground between traditional Catalan song and flamenco, and using free jazz as a driving force.

20/09: Clara Gispert. She explores new sounds, combining electronic and pop music with classical and cinematic elements. She has created a live quartet that combines organic and electronic music to offer a different experience.

21/09: Wagner Pà & Os 3 Parceiros.New musical project by Wagner Pa, Fernando Dinky and Mau The Spirit, well-known musicians from Barcelona’s world music scene. This acoustic trio distils modern jazz/bosssa, Afro-Brazilian sounds and Brazilian funk.

22/09: Queralt Lahoz. Outstanding Catalan artist who fuses genres such as soul, hip-hop and dancehall with flamenco roots, creating a unique sound.

3/10: Maria Rodés (Foto: Erika Pruefer) The artist commemorates the tenth anniversary of her landmark album Maria Canta Copla, an album made up of versions of popular songs inspired by soundtracks that recovers post-war Spanish song standards.

6/10: Karen Lugo + Chicuelo + José Maldonado. A music and dance project that combines flamenco with an exploration of the fundamental aspects of the human being: body, mind and spirit.

11/10: Ana Rossi & Marcelo Mercadante. They interpret in a very personal way, escaping from stereotypes, some of the great works of tango. A delightful repertoire that goes through the Buenos Aires criolla, representing pieces from the repertoire of the famous Carlos Gardel and following the journey to the present day.

12/10: Sempre Beatles! Tribute to Josep Maria Francino, renowned journalist, radio broadcaster and musician, a reference in the world of The Beatles, through the songs of the band that fascinated him. Part of the proceeds from the performance will be donated to the Associació Discapacitat Visual Catalunya: B1+B2+B3.

13/10: Marala. The group made up of the Catalan Selma Bruna, the Mallorcan Clara Fiol and the Valencian Sandra Monfort uses tradition as a force for innovation. Their songs are based on the present and pay tribute to the past.

Popular culture will also play a special role on the Race Village stage, as well as in Ciutat Vella district, the central nerve of cultural and performing arts facilities, which directly hosts the races and activities of the America’s Cup. The district’s schools, organisations and cultural facilities will present their own programme of popular culture, performing arts, visual arts and music, the result of a call for entries made specifically for the occasion:

7/09: Barceloneta popular culture entities,  in collaboration with the District of Ciutat Vella

15/09: Catalan Federation of Choir Entities: Barcelona Rainbow Singers performance

29/09: Barcelona Falcons 

17/10: Giants meeting.

In addition to the programme promoted by the Barcelona Institute of Culture, there will also be six performances selected through an open call by Ciutat Vella district, with the aim of ensuring that the main stage of the Moll de Fusta Village also includes performances closely linked to the district and the Barceloneta neighbourhood. The performances chosen for the Ciutat Vella district are as follows:

12/09: Koyam Project: a Barceloneta-based group that gives visibility to the Afro-Latin musical diversity of the American continent. They are also part of the Músics de carrer programme.

15/09: Musicals’ Choir: A choir of young people from the Escola de Músics and PJC, made up of 63 boys and girls from Ciutat Vella. The intensity and freshness of the adaptations and excerpts of great international and Catalan hits they perform leaves no one indifferent.

19/09: Tablao Sur: quartet that plays the flamenco genre with jazz, pop, classical and Latin American music combined with flamenco. The guitar is played by Pepe Camacho, a well-known guitarist who has lived in the Raval neighbourhood for more than thirty years.

29/09: Paula Peso (Taller de Músics): Since she was very young she has been involved in music and singing has become her great passion. In April 2024 she presents her new project, Amazona, in which she is currently immersed. In it she explores new sound forms and urban influences, without abandoning the R&B base that characterises her.

6/10: Oleàndole: One of the aims of the Oleàndole group is to make the cultural heritage of the gypsy population visible and central, to contribute to the professional growth and success of the artists, as well as to help promote the perpetuation of flamenco and not to encourage any kind of discrimination. The founder and musical director of the group, Ramón Olivares, has been a resident of the Barceloneta neighbourhood for over 24 years, as well as having worked as a teacher at the Barceloneta Civic Centre.

17/10: Sara Aldana: Sara Aldana is a Colombian singer-songwriter with a multidisciplinary professional profile that covers areas such as composition, vocal performance and musical arrangements. A warm and fresh musical proposal that shares sounds with Latin, jazz and Afro. It has been part of the Cabal Musical programme.

On the other hand, the Olympic Port will also become a space for culture and artistic expression, with a daytime programme that will coincide with the women’s dones (Puig Women’s America’s Cup) and young people’s (UniCredit Youth America’s Cup) regattas, precisely one of the novelties of the America’s Cup in the city of Barcelona.

In addition, during the Mercè festivities, from 21 to 24 September, the Mercè Arts de Carrer (MAC) will also move to the seafront with an extensive proposal impregnated with a story around the sea that will have different formats and will be located in different spaces along the Mestral Pier mill and the Bogatell promenade. The full programme of the La Mercè festival will be announced at the beginning of September.

The Cultural Regatta began in Sant Jordi and includes more than two hundred activities by more than sixty entities, institutions and facilities in the city. When the America’s Cup begins on 22 August, the epicentre of the Cultural Regatta will become the Moll de la Fusta Village, the Olympic Port and also different areas of the city that will host gastronomic and commercial activities.

On 10 October, on Bogatell beach, there will be the America’s Cup Ceremony, which marks the start, from 12 October, of the final challenge of the sporting event.

All the planned activities are free and open to all citizens. You can consult the programme, which will be updated periodically, on the Regata Cultural website.