With the America's Cup, the sea of Barcelona will become the competition's regatta course, and the city's coastline will serve as a grandstand from which to follow the swift back and forth of flying boats. With the aim of involving citizens in the celebration of the sporting event and taking it beyond sport and the sea, the Barcelona City Council has promoted a cultural, gastronomic, educational, sports and leisure program. Named Regata Cultural, the initiative aims to bring the world of sailing and the America's Cup closer to the public.
In collaboration with other institutions and entities, the program will include activities and events until the regattas end in October. Some of the proposals are destined to become memorable events, among which the concerts on Sant Sebastià beach directed by Gustavo Dudamel and Ludovic Morlot on July 11 and 12, respectively, stand out. The first of the concerts, also within what will be the second edition of Clàssica a la Platja, will feature the Barcelona and National Symphony Orchestra of Catalonia under the baton of its principal conductor. Morlot will direct a show focused on anthems from great sporting events, including Freddy Mercury's essential Barcelona for Montserrat Caballé. The soprano Serena Sáenz, the baritone Josep Ramon Oliver, the mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham and the tenor Freddie de Tommaso, together with the Orfeó Català, will lend their voices to the concert.
Dudamel's concert repertoire will have a different focus, centered on a selection of John Williams' most emblematic compositions, such as the soundtracks for Jurassic Park, E.T., Star Wars, Superman, and Harry Potter. The event will bring together the Cor i l'Orquestra Simfònica del Liceu, as well as violinist María Dueñas and cellist Pablo Fernández, in a concert that will also feature the Cor Infantil de l'Orfeó Català. Music by the sea will also be the protagonist of another of the program's highlights: the largest gathering of habaneras the city remembers will take place in Port Vell on June 15, with groups such as Crema Catalana, Boira, Ultramar, and Port Bo. They will perform from the Moll de Pescadors, one of the many spaces that have seen their transformation accelerated as a result of the America's Cup. The competition has acted as a catalyst for the reform of Port Olímpic and Nova Bocana, the transformation of Port Vell and for the launch of new services, such as the nautical bus that will connect Drassanes with Moll de Llevant from July 1.
In addition to these large-format concerts by the Mediterranean, the Cultural Regatta includes an opening ceremony for the final regatta in October. Led by the Fundació Barcelona Capital Nàutica, the event aims to capture global attention with an impressive spectacle for which no further details have yet been announced.
The Cultural Regatta will also reach the city and its neighborhoods with activities such as exhibitions and reading series in various museums and librariesBeyond these major events, the Cultural Regatta will sprinkle activities and events throughout the calendar until the end of the competition. At Moll de la Fusta, the Race Village will be the setting for many of them, with a focus on artistic creativity with a Barcelona stamp. From August 30 to October 20, it will offer 24 free performances of popular culture, street arts, dance, circus, and music every weekend. In addition, Ciutat Vella will have its own program with proposals from schools, entities, and cultural facilities in the district, specially prepared for the occasion. The Race Village will also be the setting for the interactive installation Barcelona Square, designed to explore and immerse oneself in the cultural and economic values of the Catalan capital. Through 360-degree screens, virtual reality, and a app, will show each user different facets of the city, depending on their interests.
In addition to the seaside events, the Cultural Regatta will permeate the rest of the city through proposals that do not forget gastronomy. Consolidated gastronomic events such as Tast a La Rambla and Mercat de Mercats will be held with references to the competition, and Tast a La Rambla will present a sample of the gastronomy of the 12 competing countries in the regatta, and various municipal markets will offer tastings with seafood cuisine and sea flavors as the common thread, such as the musclada at the Mercat de Les Corts on June 15 and the sardinada at Santa Caterina on September 14. There will also be festivals and gastronomic, commercial, and craft spaces that will emphasize the competition, such as the creation of a cocktail dedicated to the America's Cup that can be drunk in the city's cocktail bars from May 22.
The Cultural Regatta will also reach the city and its neighborhoods with activities such as exhibitions and reading series in various museums and libraries. The Maritime Museum, the Natural Sciences Museum, the Disseny Hub, the CCCB, the Fundació Joan Miró, Casa Àsia and the Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria will program activities that will include exhibitions, talks, debates, shows, and family proposals. The theme will be more than diverse: from exploring the technology behind the regatta to addressing the challenges of coastal cities, reviewing expeditions across the sea, and even hearing siren songs. In addition, the CCCB will host three sessions of the reference nautical and sailing film festival, Sail In, which will land for the first time in Barcelona.
The Cultural Regatta consists of more than 200 activities distributed throughout the city and its coastlineThe programming has also reserved a relevant role for women sailors, precisely in the first edition of the America's Cup which will feature a women's regatta. The five members of the Sail Team BCN will compete to win the cup in October. They will do so based in the Olympic Port after the second edition of the youth category is also disputed, for which they are also preparing the youth team from Sail Team BCN.
Both teams will contend for the trophy on the Barcelona coast, which will also be the setting for two other key proposals of the Cultural Regatta: the closing of the educational program Viu la Vela, and the exhibition of Catalan sailing skiffs which aims to be the largest in history, bringing together more than 300 boats. For its part, the closing of Viu la Vela will mark the end of the second edition of this program, designed to bring sailing sports closer to all schools in Barcelona. So far, the program has benefited 6,500 sixth-grade students from 165 educational centers. More than 2,000 of them will participate in the closing of this edition, with a party on June 12 at the Port Olímpic and on Platja de la Nova Icària.
The program is complemented by dozens of activities, including proposals linked to Ciutat Vella and Barceloneta to highlight the territory that will host the competition. In addition to the first open days of the Port de Barcelona, activities such as historical routes and exhibitions linked to the neighborhood, the district, and the sea have been scheduled.
With this program, made up of more than 200 activities, the City Council aims to bring the America's Cup closer to the citizens, who will not only be able to experience it through the cultural proposals designed around the competition, but will also be able to follow it from the beach and from areas equipped with screens. These areas will turn the city's coastline into a grandstand for the oldest active competition in the world, with the aim of making history with the Barcelona edition.