The America's Cup of sailing is the oldest sports trophy in the world still competed for. First convened in 1851, it has had to wait until being held in Barcelona to marry sport with culture. The edition in the Catalan capital will be the first to accompany the competition's boats with a cultural program that aims to bring the regatta closer to all citizens and fully immerse the city in the sporting event. With this objective, the Louis Vuitton 37 America's Cup will arrive in the city not only with the sailors and their flying boats, but also with a program of 200 activities, promoted by 60 entities, institutions, and facilities.
"Only in Barcelona could we mobilize all the strength not only of the City Council, but of the city," proclaimed the mayor, Jaume Collboni, at the presentation of what has been named the Cultural Regatta, in an event at the Fundació Joan Miró. The program draws on the experience and legacy left by its namesake Cultural Olympiad with the 1992 Olympic Games. "We wanted to do it the Barcelona way: to have a cultural program parallel to the sporting event, something that had never happened before with the America's Cup," added the mayor.
Concerts, tastings, exhibitions, workshops, demonstrations, and sports, scientific, and leisure activities make up the program. Among the activities, the concerts on Sant Sebastià beach directed by Gustavo Dudamel and Ludovic Morlot on July 11 and 12, respectively, stand out. In what will be the second edition of the Clàssica a la Platja series and within the Cultural Regatta, the first of the concerts will feature the Barcelona and National Symphony Orchestra of Catalonia under the baton of its principal conductor. Morlot will also feature the Orfeó Català and the voices of soprano Serena Sáenz, baritone Josep Ramon Oliver, mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham, and tenor Freddie de Tommaso. They will perform a peculiar repertoire chosen for the occasion and focused on anthems from great sporting events, which will not overlook Freddie Mercury's mythical Barcelona for Montserrat Caballé.
The final regatta of the 37th America's Cup will open on October 10 with a show from the beachThe concert, which will be led by Dudamel, will pivot around another axis: a selection of John Williams' most emblematic compositions, the creator of soundtracks for films and sagas such as Jurassic Park, E.T., Star Wars, Superman, and Harry Potter. "It will be a unique event," Dudamel guaranteed in a video. Starring the Cor i l'Orquestra Simfònica del Liceu, the concert will also feature violinist María Dueñas and cellist Pablo Fernández, in addition to the collaboration of the Cor Infantil de l'Orfeó Català, whose voices will resonate in what will be an "exceptional" concert. This is how the director of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Valentí Oviedo, described it, along with the general director of the Palau de la Música, Joan Oller, and the director of L'Auditori, Robert Brufau, who presented two of the main events included in the Cultural Regatta.
These are not the only events that aim to become international reference events. The final regatta of the 37th America's Cup will be inaugurated on October 10 with a ceremony and a show from the beach. "It will be an event that we will remember for years," Collboni predicted. It will consist of a visual spectacle with which the city will seek to "dazzle the whole world again". The project, led by the Fundació Barcelona Capital Náutica, also responds to Barcelona's DNA, according to Collboni: "This is an event that is not usually held for the America's Cup, but we said that, in Barcelona, if we hold a major global event, we hold a grand inauguration." And Barcelona wants to make history with the America's Cup, whose celebration will make the city the first to host the three most relevant sporting events: the Olympic Games, the World Cup, and the regatta.
The program of large-scale shows does not end here. Also with music as the protagonist, the Port Vell will host on June 15 the largest gathering of habaneras that Barcelona remembers. With the America's Cup as a catalyst, the 38th Gran Trobada d'Havaneres Barcelona Cara al Mar will premiere a new format and stage, where the groups Crema Catalana, Boira, Ultramar, and Port Bo will perform at the Moll de Pescadors and with the sea as a backdrop. The Mediterranean will also be the setting for another of the highlights of this Cultural Regatta: the largest patín de vela exhibition in history, which expects to gather 300 of these boats and "put the icing on the cake" for the America's Cup, according to Rafel Figuerola, president of the Club Patí de Vela Barcelona.
The renovated Port Olímpic, which will host the youth and women's competitions, will be another of the venues for the Cultural Regatta events, as it will program workshops and small-format concerts, in collaboration with the Barcelona Jazz Festival. And it will have another great novelty: it is incorporated as a venue for La Mercè activities. The city's main festival will offer circus and dance performances, as well as installations and workshops for the whole family, Anna Lleó from the Department of Festivals and Events of the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona detailed.
Another of the poles that will concentrate activities and performances will be the Moll de la Fusta, where the Race Village will be installed. From August 22 until the end of the competition, this space will program more than 30 performances, with an extensive program especially between August 30 and October 20.
Apart from concerts and performances, the program includes cultural activities such as exhibitions, thematic cycles in libraries and activities linked to commerce and restoration. In this vein, municipal markets will offer tastings of seafood cuisine, and Tast a La Rambla will include gastronomic proposals from the 12 teams participating in the competition, among many proposals that will have gastronomy and the regatta as a common thread.
In addition, the Maritime Museum, the Museum of Natural Sciences, the Disseny Hub, the CCCB, the Fundació Joan Miró, Casa Àsia and the Born Centre de Cultura i Memòria will also program activities included within the Cultural Regatta, with the purpose of strengthening the link between Barcelona and its residents with the America's Cup. Also with this objective, the reference nautical and sailing film festival Sail In will land for the first time in Barcelona, with three sessions at the CCCB.
A reflection of Barcelona's values
"When Barcelona has wanted to project itself to the world and take leaps forward, it has done so with great international events, and the America's Cup is one of these great transformative events for the city," Collboni remarked. He said this in reference to a legacy both tangible and intangible, ranging from urban transformations to an immaterial footprint that encompasses areas such as sustainability, equality —with the first women's regatta in history— and the democratization of nautical sports, with the promotion of sailing and its practice among Barcelona residents. With this objective, the "public school of the sea" has been created with the Viu la Vela project, through which some 17,000 primary school children from more than 320 educational centers in the city have passed. The closing of this first navigation course will be held in June and will also be part of the Cultural Regatta.
Collboni has claimed that this Cultural Regatta aims to be a reflection of the city's values, and to show that "Barcelonans are from the sea," as he believes has also been demonstrated with international events such as the UN Ocean Decade Conference, held last week in the city. The mayor recalled this at an event in which, through a video, the CEO of the America's Cup and of the defending team of the trophy, Emirates Team New Zealand, Grant Dalton, participated, praising Barcelona's culture, as well as its beaches and sailing conditions. Thus, the city brings together a set of characteristics that, for him, made the choice of the Catalan capital to host the regatta evident: "The question is not why Barcelona, but why not Barcelona."