The regional ministry presented today in Zaragoza´s International Expo the latest edition of the Ortigueira Festival, sponsored by the town hall of Ortigueira and the Management Society of the Xacobean Plan.
This summer date with Celtic music will take place between the 10th and the 13th of July, offering up to 25 free concerts with groups such as Moving Hearts, The Dubliners, Värttinä, 17 hippies, Sondeseu, Uxía or Fía na Roca.
The Galician Ministry of Innovation and Industry promotes Ortigueira Festival in ExpoZaragoza
The manager of the M.S. of the Xacobean Plan, Ignacio Rodríguez Eguíbar; the deputy director of Public Works and Cooperation from the Directorate General of Tourism, Pilar Morgade Saavedra; Ortigueira’s mayor, Rafael Girón, and the event director, Francisco Rivera, presented today in the International Press Center of ExpoZaragoza the 30th edition of the Ortigueira Festival. Shown as part of the programme of activities for the promotion of Galicia in the Expo, the event served to announce the most appealing features of the world-famous Celtic summer gathering. On this occasion, the Mundo Celta will offer 25 free concerts and up to ten parallel events.
Just a week from the beginning of the Festival –to take place between the 10th and 13th of July- Ortigueira’s mayor pointed out that everything is ready to receive the thousands of visitors that will be welcomed by the slightly more than 7,000 neighbours of this municipality. According to the mayor, the visitors, whose number has exceeded the hundred thousand in the last years, will arrive in the Galician village attracted by the best Celtic music, the multicultural coexistence in the midst of nature and the fact that the event is totally cost-free.
Back in 2005, Ortigueira´s Celtic Music Festival was declared an event of International Tourist Interest. The latest edition’s programme stands out for its variety, quality and multidisciplinary character.
The Estrella Galicia Stage, the main one, clearly opts for the international promotion of Galician groups in its programme. The latest works of Fía na Roca, Uxía, Xochilmica and the folk orchestra Sondeseu, will be presented in Ortigueira Festival, after which Sondeseu will be heading straight to the capital of Aragon to open the Galician Week in Zaragoza´s International Expo.
The festival will also clear off an old debt with the fans of The Dubliners, the Scottish Boys of The Lough and the reborn Moving Hearts, three legendary bands of the Celtic scene that, after decades of touring, will make their début in Ortigueira. There will also be room for more traditional offers such as the Finnish Värtinä or the 17 hippies from Germany.
The musical choice will be matched with the afternoon concerts of the finalists of the “Proyecto Runas’08”, aimed at supporting the blossoming folk bands of the Iberian Peninsula. The contest, with a budget that exceeds the 700.000 for the first time in its history, complements its recreational programme with a vast range of parallel activities for all interests. Craft markets, exhibitions, drumming workshops, bagpipe parades from the Celtic nations and, as this year’s novelty, also theatre, will enrich the available choices of this famous event, consolidated as a stage for all kinds of artistic disciplines.
