Artistic project

Leticia Martín Ruiz will take on the artistic direction of the 2025 Barcelona Grec Festival with a project that aims to find new audiences and ways to increase not only the number of spectators, but also the festival’s impact on the city as a whole.

The project for the coming years focuses on the idea of turning Barcelona into a citywide festival during the month of July, strengthening the presence of the performing arts in public spaces and linking the acts to the world of today and the most topical issues of our time: from people’s ego and the fear gripping our world to concepts such as collectivity, identity, change, conflict and justice, with technology, nature and transformation as underlying motifs. Today’s world often oscillates between facts and truth, what we believe and what we feel, the individual and the community, and the extreme relativity of overinformation, which leaves us more misinformed and desensitised than ever. In response to this, the Grec Festival seeks to create a space for reflection and empathy, while keeping the magic of the stage alive.
 

The three pillars of a festival

Barcelona’s transformation into a citywide festival will be achieved through a unique triangular approach, with three key pillars supporting the festival’s inner workings and potential: the creators, who are members of the city’s or the world’s artistic community; the Barcelona audience, without whom no performance would exist; and the city itself, both as a source of inspiration and as a unique container that unveils new stages year after year.

Dance, theatre, music and circus – the latter of which has demonstrated its great potential for attracting new audiences in recent years – will be combined with street arts. Exchanges and co-productions, whether with local, national or international partners, will be a key strategy for the festival, aiming for both quality and artistic risk in order to bring some of the most valuable examples of today’s new artistic realities to Barcelona’s stages.

Large-scale productions in major venues, intimate performances in smaller theatres, and grand outdoor spectacles will all feature in the festival’s programming over the coming years. A wide variety of formats will also be embraced: close-up or immersive performances, text-based theatre or dance, and multidisciplinary shows that explore new ways of engaging with audiences.

The Grec of the coming years will present a contemporary and socially committed programme that will not only turn Barcelona into a citywide festival, but also establish it as a national and international benchmark. This will be achieved by forging collaborations between public institutions, local organisations and the artistic community, all with a single aim: to provide the widest possible audience with the deepest and highest quality artistic experience.

Montjuïc will remain the heart and soul of the festival. From there, its energy will radiate throughout the city, with new venues introduced each year for audiences to rediscover all it has to offer. As always, the Grec will continue its dual mission: to offer Barcelona audiences a window into the world’s finest artistic creations, while at the same time nurturing and showcasing local talent, especially that which has emerged from the city’s creative centres and art spaces. This valuable network of creative infrastructure will take on a special significance in the coming years, giving a voice to the city’s up-and-coming artists.

The festival’s potential new audiences include the many visitors who arrive in Barcelona every day, who can be drawn to international or local performances they can relate to, as well as families and, in particular, younger audiences under the age of 35.

Ultimately, the aim is to continue supporting the city’s artists, keeping audiences informed about global artistic trends while also offering a programme that encourages both reflection and enjoyment.