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“Nowhere else shall we see such a clear creative process like the one we can see in Lanzarote. The island promotes artistic behaviour and a physical approach to pure creation”
Brian Eno, 1996
FESTIVAL
Created in 1989
The Lanzarote Visual Music Festival was created in 1989, following a suggestion made by artist Ildefonso Aguilar and sponsored by the Cabildo of Lanzarote. The Festival is an outstanding artistic event based on the combination of avant-garde music with different artistic forms of expression in perfect harmony with the unique features of the natural stage landscapes of Lanzarote, such as the Jameos del Agua and Cueva de los Verdes Auditoriums.
From the get-go of the Festival, the perfect combination of new music and a unique volcanic landscape, drew the interest of contemporary musicians such as Brian Eno and Michael Brook, among others, which helped this Festival become one of the most attractive and extraordinary avant-garde music events in the world during its 13 consecutive editions that went from 1989 to 2002.
In 2017, after fifteen long years, the Cultural Area of the Cabildo of Lanzarote has rescued this innovative music event, highly demanded by locals and visitors. The Festival aims to bring back the prestige and cultural repercussion that an initiative such as this means for Lanzarote, and to turn it into a unique artistic option that will help consolidate the island as high standard cultural destination, able to attract those who intend to discover a one-of-a-kind musical experience surrounded by Lanzarote’s stunning landscape.
STAGE AREAS
Lanzarote
Lanzarote is a subtle and outstanding volcanic territory, with extraordinary spaces perfect for cultural manifestations of nature. The combination of the volcanoes and the quiet work of local farmers on a hostile land, helped shape a landscape where there have always been delicate sounds that can be heard by attentive and excited viewers. Therefore, the composition and performance of new music can find in Lanzarote the perfect set, which results in a revealing symbiosis.
Throughout the different editions of the Festival, there have been plenty of natural areas and unique buildings used to hold the concerts of the Festival, but it has been two volcanic bubbles, turned into auditoriums, the ones that have become its main headquarters. The Auditoriums of Jameos del Agua and Cueva de los Verdes, set up as volcanic caves with a perfect symbiosis between art and nature, the senses of viewers are exposed to the most suggestive and innovative sounds.
Besides these two main spaces, there are other stages where concerts are held, such as Volcán del Cuervo, the old volcanic ash quarry of Montaña de Tahíche and the convents, Convento de San Francisco and Santo Domingo in Teguise, as well as the Iglesia de San Ginés church and Playa de El Reducto in Arrecife.