Jazz Festival

The traditional Vitoria-Gasteiz Jazz Festival is nearly on: its 33rd edition starts tomorrow. Most of its web is translated and is a widely covered event.

But, I wanted to post here a video from its 31st edition where Buika performed -Buika's family is originally from Equatorial Guinea and she grew up in Spain among gypsy people and foreigners as the only person of African descent. Her music mixes flamenco with soul, jazz and funk. Wikipedia.-

European Juggling Convention 2009 is (nearly) over

Lasted for 8 days, counted with 4,000 participants and as it can be seen a quite big audience :D Congratulations!

Further information in English + pictures.



A gym video:

Dispersed Orchestra in Vitoria-Gasteiz

"The orchestra will disperse itself through the streets of the city centre and play the same musical piece in a synchronised manner. People passing by will be able to perceive the music at all times. "

Vitoria-Gasteiz City Centre - Starting at noon the next 12th September 2009.

The Roots:

"The Vitoria-Gasteiz City Council is leading the Alhóndiga Plan, an urban renewal project with the aim of making the city centre a meeting point for its citizens. Therefore, collaboration with the group mmmm… was considered to be an opportunity to experiment with new work methods in order to create spaces for interdisciplinary encounters to provide transversality to both the Alhóndiga Plan and other municipal projects."

The project came up after The City Council contacted Disonancias: "DISONANCIAS is a platform for driving open and collaborative innovation between artists and companies."

The Missing Accents

Pablo Zulaica (Vitoria-Gasteiz 1982) is watching out for incorrectly written words at Mexico D.F. streets.He is correcting "accents" -known as "tildes" in Spanish-. If you are learning Spanish this is an artsy way !

Note: I have corrected arty - I am using artsy instead. I *think* that this has a positive meaning instead. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Away - Sorry

I have been pretty busy lately and have not found any time to post anything new here. Of course, many things have happened in the city and probably the best part of the year is about to start: 25th of June is Sant Juan festivities -a very special night all around Spain, The Basque and of course Vitoria-Gasteiz-, culture, activities for free on the road, and festivities. July is the busiest and prettiest month of the Summer: usually sunny, there are lots of places to listen Jazz all day and night long for at least two consecutive weeks.

The city gets very quiet right after the 9th of August with the end of Vitoria-Gasteiz festivities. It is also a good time for walking all around and enjoying the terraces on the sun: to hike the mountains around and visit the (two) surrounding lakes and be in contact with nature. It is a time for reading, sleeping, and enjoying a quiet life with friends. And it can also be a nice spot if you would like to visit The Basque. The Youth Basque Orchestra will probably play in August: another chance to watch them. I would like to propose to anyone to go to the small towns around the Alava and Basque region at that time: their small festivities are probably nicer than in big cities: Basque Rural Sport, food -pintxos-, and good parties that are always surprisingly packed.

Unfortunately I am unsure if I will be able to post here for a long time, but I want to wish anyone reading this lines a very nice summer -better in The Basque, of course :p

Eslabón

Eslabón -Link- is a 4 minutes documentary in spanish about Vitoria-Gasteiz's teaching student Alberto García's experience as a cooperant in a literacy campaign project in Congo:

Old Part of Vitoria-Gasteiz looking for start-up inversors

The Town Hall of Vitoria-Gasteiz has been planning -during the last years- a complete reorganization of the Old Part of the Town. This part has been abandoned for long -besides being once the heart of it. In this area we can find very important parts of the history of Vitoria-Gasteiz and the Basque Region, being the Old Cathedral and the Old Wall the latest and most relevant architectural projects that have been recovered by the authorities.

The plan for this year is to enhance the small businesses and activate this beautiful and abandoned space of the city. For doing so, the authorities will pay rents or buy premises in the area (up to 1,800 €) and then re-rent them to small start-up projects or business of any kind (with an estimated rent of 400€ per month).

People interested should firstly contact the Vitoria-Gasteiz's Urban Regeneration Agency (8th Nueva Sq. also called Spain Sq.) and contact Carlos Rodríguez de Diego. Also a good business project must be presented; it is very important to demonstrate the technical ability to go ahead and be aware of the local tax system. Successful candidates would then be helped to find a proper premise in which to develop their business.