The Cante de las Minas Festival, a date you can't miss if you have a property at La Manga Club

Do you have a property at La Manga Club and love flamenco? Well, just a short hop from you is the 57th Cante de las Minas Festival, one of the most prestigious international celebrations of this age-old art, one of the bedrocks of Spanish culture. Flamenco and its tearing expression of pain, its swirling dervishes and its virtuous song attract thousands of spectators every year to this event, all in search of performances by established artists and upcoming stars. It’s an important festival that’s also sponsored by La Manga Club.

The International Cante de las Minas Festival

Our leisure and golf resort is a proud sponsor of this event and for almost two decades we’ve been accommodating the majority of the star performers at our facilities. The festival is one of the most well known internationally in the genre because of its trajectory and the impressive portfolio of stars that have given performances here since its founding in 1961. These giants include singers like Camarón, guitarists like Paco de Lucía and dancers like Antonio Canales, just to name a few, who have graced the floor of the Old Public Market in the town of La Unión, the location of the event, very close to your property at La Manga Club.

The festival has two separate parts: one is concerts given by figures well known in the world of flamenco, and the other a contest that seeks to uncover new talent, whether in song, dance, or instrument. The winner of the singing contest receives the acclaimed “Lámpara Minera” prize. This is where the world was introduced, for example, to the cantaor Miguel Poveda, considered by many to be the best talent of the present day and one of the greats of all time.

The event, since its inception, has delved into the “levantine miner” songs that appeared in the XIX century in the mining hills of Cartagena-La Unión, songs with a depth born of hard work under the earth. Under this premise, this crucial artistic event has grown year after year and has accrued recognition such as being named an event of National Cultural Interest (1984). The mining songs were also declared materials of Cultural Interest in 2010, the same year that flamenco as a whole was declared a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Art.

This 57th edition will be celebrated from the 2nd to the 12th of August, though the real opening is the 3rd, with the performance of the winners from last year (Antonia Contreras, Belén López and Ildefonso Aroca). You can’t miss the performances by flamenco stars like Lole Montoya and Juan Carmona, Rocío Márquez, Juan Pinilla, Paco Montalvo, Manuela Carrasco, Jesús Méndez, Argentina, Mayte Martín, and the Flamenco Ballet of Andalucía. The semifinals of the contest will be from the 9th to the 11th, and the final, the conferral of prizes, and the closing act, the 12th.

As you see, you’ve got a wonderful opportunity to enjoy the best flamenco in the world just next to your property at La Manga Club, and to walk the same grounds as the most well known current stars of this ancient art.

For more information, visit the official festival page.