An ambitious commitment like that of the Cruïlla Festival to offer a multisensory and multidisciplinary experience has required joining forces with specialized allies in these fields. On the one hand, with the Empordà festival White Summer, which has been creating a magical atmosphere during the summer months by mixing fashion, music, and gastronomy in a unique setting for years. This is how White Summer director, Myriam Cuatrecasas, explains their contribution to Cruïlla: "We want to offer visitors a complementary hedonistic, sophisticated, expressive, and pleasurable offer that manages to combine the experience of musical activity with proposals for leisure, culture, gastronomy, design, fashion, and art. Therefore, our goal is to create an idyllic ecosystem that favors and enhances a complete experience for visitors."
As a result of the collaboration with White Summer, the new space Cruïlla Lifestyle by White Summer is born, which will host a series of differentiated areas and activities specially designed for Cruïlla visitors. The gastronomic offer includes world cuisines, healthy, vegan, gluten-free, but with an emphasis on Mediterranean products, all in an environment where aesthetics will also be very carefully curated. There will also be an entrepreneurs' and designers' market, a children's activity area, itinerant performances, and passes by the White Summer dance company to liven up the areas between concerts. More than 35 food trucks and 30 different brands for festival visitors to enjoy a complete experience or for the musical experience to be combined with shopping and gastronomy.
In the field of art, the performance by La Fura dels Baus stands out, which on Saturday the 14th at night will present their show Dreams, an aerial and playful-therapeutic performance. Half of the actors are people with special needs and the other half are their therapists. A show of great emotional intensity that takes place in a large net suspended in the air. The Aquelarre de Cervera will also be presented on Friday night, a festival born in 1978 whose protagonists are fire, music, and the witches of the Lands of Lleida, which is held every year on the last Saturday of August.
Likewise, artistic experiences already held in previous editions will continue, such as the Art Urbà action, which presents graffiti inspired by the festival's artists, and the spectacular scenography created by artist Lluís Danés for the Estrella Damm stage, the largest at the festival. Danés explains his experience with these words: «What I like most is working with musicians and putting myself at the service of a festival like this that values diversity. This year we started with an enormous challenge, as the stage facade has been expanded by nearly 100 square meters, reaching a height of eighteen meters, and is based on the idea of dedicating the scenography to the underwater world. We want to invite visitors to take a journey to the bottom of the sea, to the worlds of Jules Verne, and to reclaim the Mediterranean. As always, the stage will mutate during the course of the Festival and will become an authentic cathedral of the sea».
Cruïlla has also signed an agreement with the Gran Teatre del Liceu, with which it is launching a project that aims to grow long-term and already includes cross-discounts for the audiences of both groups. Enjoying all of Cruïlla without needing to use cash (with payment and access via smart wristbands that avoid access queues), massage areas, a space equipped with a bookstore, a project for collecting donations for the Obra Social de Sant Joan de Déu... Cruïlla offers free entry to children under 15, and mobility has been improved thanks to the uninterrupted TRAM service throughout the festival. It should not be forgotten that this year Cruïlla becomes the first festival in Spain to use 100% biodegradable corn cups that can be deposited in organic waste containers. An extra effort for the organization, as the material is photosensitive and thermosensitive, which will require keeping them at a protected temperature to maintain their functionality in the middle of the summer season.
All this is offered by Cruïlla apart from its musical program, which balancedly combines great international stars with a generous representation of local artists.
Featured images 1. Fura dels Baus show "Dreams" 2. Urban art at Cruïlla. Image from the festival's website.