The Grec Festival de Barcelona has announced the programme for this year’s 2025 edition, the first in the new phase led by artistic director Leticia Martín Ruiz. To open the festival, Le Petit Cirque (from 26 to 28 June), a show that combines music, dance and circus in a sensory bath for all audiences that celebrates nature and invites us to become children again for a while. One of the protagonists (in addition to Marie Bourgeois and the singer Pomme) is Yoann Bourgeois, whom spectators will meet after his time at the Grec in 2018 (Minuit) and 2023 (Celui qui tombe). 

This year’s programme once again brings to Barcelona some of the biggest names on the stage and in music. Among many others, Milo Rau, Carolina Bianchi and Cara de Cavalho, Max Richter, William Kentridge and the Handspring Puppet Company, Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, Alessandro Sciarroni, Christos Papadopoulos, Mario Banush, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Lisaboa Houbrechts, but also Rozalén, Clara Peya, Llorenç Barber, Lucia Fumero and an endless list of names, some of them established figures and some of them younger ones who will have to be followed closely. This year’s programme includes ninety shows (44 theatre, 24 music, 15 dance, five circus and three cinema), spread over 42 venues, in addition to the activities for spectators and the professional activities that are being organised.

On the verge of celebrating its half century of life, the Grec Festival de Barcelona has changed artistic direction and has set new goals, including involving the city itself in the festival, programming street performances and inviting the public to explore a Barcelona which, yes, still has stages to be discovered.

Thus, Arc de Triomf will become the stage for the most popular Grec, an open and free show in which (5 and 6 July) the city itself becomes a gigantic score that Marc Salicrú turns into an experimental and chaotic concert. It’s Teatres de campanya_Interferència 02: breu inici d’aproximació a l’acomiadament del trajecte comtal per la porta de l’arc del darrere. Trajecte a 110 bpm.  This promises to be a sonorous feast that will give voice to the city itself.

The Arc de Triomf is not the only new venue in the festival’s programme, which in this year’s edition is located in two little-known places. One is the Santuari de la Mare de Déu del Carme, in Barcelona’s Eixample district. It is a building from the early 20th century by Josep Domènech i Estapà (and his son), where on 12 July a complex vocal composition by John Tavener, The Veil of the Temple, will be performed with the Orfeó Català conducted by Simon Halsey. And another of these new and unusual venues is the beautiful Casa Studio by Leopoldo Pomés, where the Bachcelona festival, a partner of the Grec, will organise a concert by the group Breaking Bach (24 July).

Teatre Grec as a centre

But the epicentre of the festival will be, as always, Teatre Grec, which, after hosting the opening show, is preparing dates with Clara Peya (3 July), Lucia Fumero (5 July), Rozalén (7 July), the essential German composer Max Richter (15 July) and a night to celebrate the festival’s anniversary (a half-century and five years), Rozalén (7 July), the indispensable German composer Max Richter (15 July) and a night to celebrate the anniversary (a century and five years) of the release of a magical record with the Pau Riba show: Dioptria 55 (22 July; directed by Caïm Riba). In addition, at the open-air theatre of Montjuïc you will see a great of modern dance, Sidi Larbi Ckerkaoui (11 and 12 July) and you can spend an evening with William Shakespeare, Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod, watching the latter two, with the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico, put together a staging of the play by the former, Los 2 hidalgos de Verona (18 and 19 July). Teatre Grec will also host the Banda Municipal de Barcelona with La Nit del Músic Alt (July 25th) and the Portuguese Tiago Rodrigues (director of the Festival d’Avinyó), who presents Hécube, pas Hécube (July 28th and 29th), a performance combining the modern world and classical myths.

At Teatre Lliure, we will be able to see the second chapter of the trilogy Cadela Força by Carolina Bianchi and Cara de Cavalho. It is Chapter 2: La germandat (11th and 12th July). The Teatre de Montjuïc is also programming performances of Moeder Courage (16 and 17 July), a play by Belgian director Lisaboa Houbrechts, while Swiss director Milo Rau returns to bring children to the stage to explore violence. It’s Medea’s Kinderen (21 and 22 July). Attention if you like Rau, because the CCCB will be showing a documentary film of his, The New Gospel (20 July).

And, at Teatre Lliure de Gràcia, Alberto Cortés (3, 4 and 5 July), talks about romantic relationships in Analphabet; Roberto Martín Maiztegui reviews our recent history in Los brutos (11 and 12 July) and the Agrupación Señor Serrano continues to innovate stage language, now with  Història de l’amor (18 to 20 July).

Dance & Circus

As for dance, at Mercat de les Flors, the Italian Alessandro Sciarroni offers a programme with  U. (un canto) and Save the last dance for me  (28th and 29th June); Humanhood dance Vortex (2nd and 3rd July) and Jesús Rubio Gamo presents the long-awaited new choreography, a work entitled …Todas esas cosas dentro de las cosas que llamamos cosas escondidas en… (6th and 7th July). Losinformalls ask for Perdón (5 and 6 July), while the Greek creator Christos Papadopoulos returns to Barcelona with My Fierce Ignorant Step (12 and 13 July). At La Caldera, La Gualtero performs a Complete Revolution (3, 4 and 5 July) and Ligia Lewis talks about scandals with the language of movement on 10 and 11 July 

As for circus, a discipline that also has the Mercat de les Flors as a reference venue, you will find shows on the strength of the group such as Tenet, by Eunoia Kolektiva (11 and 12 July); the combination of circus, dance and theatre performed by Pablo Molina at Candy (25th and 26th July) or the Canadian acrobatic group People Watching, which, at Play Dead (28th and 29th July), performs circus with elements from everyday life. Don’t leave the Mercat without seeing Mario Banushi, the Albanian-born creator who, they say, is the newest face on the ever-exciting Greek scene. Highly visual theatre without words at Mami (22nd and 23rd July).

Beyond Montjuïc

The festival, which extends far beyond Montjuïc, sets up as a stage the Jardins de Rubió i Lluch, at the Antic Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau, which will host a concert of bells by Llorenç Barber entitled L’espai alliberat (8 July; free). It is part of Extramurs, an artistic project with urban dimensions by the Museu Tàpies, this time linked to the artist Elena del Rivero. 

At Fundació Joan Miró, the percussionist Núria Andorrà will turn the installation of a 1970s avant-garde artist into a sound installation in Reflexos (19 July) and the Centre de les Arts Lliures of the Fundació Joan Brossa will host two proposals with theatre as a theme: Autoritat (16 and 17 July), by Roger Bernat and Søren Evinson, and the performative lecture Autopsia (16 and 17 July), by the playwright Roberto Fratini. In addition, Irene Sala Vicente is building an Oasi (from 2 to 6 July) which will be active in the evening.

Internationaal Theatre Amsterdam, well known to Grec audiences, returns to Barcelona (TNC from 4 to 6 July), with a new director, Eline Arbo, and a staging of Michael Cunningham’s The Hours, which brings Virginia Woolf to Plaça de les Glòries. CCCB hosts the paleontological dance of Marco d’Agostín at Asteroid (5 and 6 July), the flamenco of the cycle Martinicos le di a mi cuerpo (10 and 11 July; Eldorado programme) and the theatre made of words of Manual per a éssers vius by La Mula (17 and 18 July).

The Sant Andreu Teatre -saT! will once again be hosting performances for all audiences, with delicate stories like glass (Sklenka Melta, by Vivian Friedrich; 3 and 4 July), mythical ones (Fènix. L’Ocell de Foc, by La Maquiné; 10 and 11 July) or unusual ones like that of the forgotten clown who explains La petita malulaluga to Marceline (18 July).

Catalan Scene

During the festival, the Catalan stage will present some of its newest works, including Tu em em vas prometre una història d’amor, by Helena Tornero (from 26 June to 27 July, at Sala Beckett) and El Monstre, by Josep Maria Miró (from 3 to 27 July; Sala Beckett). Oriol Broggi returns to Shakespeare at Teatre La Biblioteca with La Tempestat (from 26 June to 30 July), starring Lluís Soler, while Josep Maria Pou takes the stage at Teatre Romea in a play about the writer Roald Dahl, Gegant (from 9 July to 3 August), directed by Josep Maria Mestres. And, at La Villarroel, Sergi Pompermayer premieres Grand Canyon (from 10 July to 3 August), directed by Pere Arquillué. Finally, at Teatre Goya, Emma Riverola signs Clavells (from 1 to 6 July), in a production directed by Abel Folk. 

At Heartbreak Hotel, Pau Roca is staging the novel by Frenchman Édouard Louis Qui va matar el meu pare? (1, 2 and 3 July), with Dafnis Balduz as the performer. Arnau Tordera I at the Teatre Condal with Sardana Superstar (from 2nd to 6th July) and the family show Forever, by Kulunka Teatro (from 23rd to 27th July; also at the Teatre Condal) are other proposals that can be seen during the Grec, as well as the cycle Amunt el teló del Poliorama per València, with three Valencian companies (from 25th June to 11th July) and the interactive and immersive dance proposal by Carles Castaño Oliveros and Sau-Ching Wong entitled Kruid (Teatre Tantarantana; 11th and 12th July).

The company La Jarra Azul continues to explore exile, now with the story of the ship Massilia as its theme (from 18 June to 6 July; Teatre Akademia); and at Sala Atrium, Lluïsa Cunillé and Xavier Albertí sign a new collaboration (Compto cada passa meva sobre la terra; Mondays and Tuesdays, from 14 to 22 July). On the same stage, Glòria Balañà i Altimira directs Steven Berkoff’s Decadència (from 1 to 27 July) and Moreno Bernardi adapts Alberto Conejero’s version of Odissea at Odissea | Studio 1 (from 29 to 31 July). Ferran Madico explains El somni de la senyora Macbeth at La Gleva Teatre (from 27 June to 7 July) and, at La Badabadoc, Lali Álvarez, Melisa Hermida and Tamara Kiper jointly sign Se baila, a transatlantic stage collaboration.

Risk & Music

Finally, the most daring proposals that explore stage languages with determination will be held at Antic Teatre, where this year’s Grec will feature Kika Superputa with the very transvestite Fuerte Esperpento (from 3 to 6 July); the aesthetics of the proposal Het Lam Gods. Primera part: La Pastora “Idili”, by Victoria Aime (from 10th to 13th July); the first collaboration of Luqui Lagomarsino and Guillem Jiménez Duplex Studio (from 17th to 20th July) and the always unconventional appearance of Los Torreznos, who this time talk about La gente (from 24th to 27th July).

As for music, Gran Teatre del Liceu is once again bringing together creators from different disciplines (dramaturgy, musical composition, stage direction…) for OH!PERA, three micro-operas that will be performed one after the other at different venues of the theatre on La Rambla (25, 26 and 27 July). 

Flamenco music will find a home at the Museu de la Música and the courtyard of the Seu del Districte de Nou Barris, the two venues hosting the sessions of the festival of the Eldorado flamenco association, Desvarío (15-18 July). And if at El Molino you can feel the music and poet aja monet, defending live the themes of When the poems do what they do (10 July), at Paral-lel 62 you have double female sessions on 20 July (Marina Satti and La Maria) and 24 July (Arooj Aftab and Mar Pujol).

If you want to know more about the programme of the Grec 2025 Festival de Barcelona, check the website and start buying tickets for the shows you don’t want to miss before they run out.