Mini arts festival starts today

'Festina Lente' begins at 4 pm today. For details see previous post. Below a nice publicity stunt, filmed in Vueltas harbour:

A festival floats to La Gomera

Four sailing

boats on a 15- month journey to seven countries with a couple of dozen mostly French  artists, musicians, dancers and performers aboard will visit the harbour of Vueltas, Valle Gran Rey, this weekend to show their talent during a two-day festival here. They will also collaborate with local artists and the event is facilitated by the Canarian ports authority.

Their interesting programme includes concerts with music from Balkan to Latino to Jazz, a DJ, acrobatics, live painting, and exhibitions (one of them underwater) and more. Films will be projected onto the sails of their boats and you can get French crepes. You may  visit the boats, go on a short sailing trip or book one of several workshops (Click the programme above for details). The troupe is part of the French 'Artquipage' association and their show begins on Saturday, January 21st 2017, from 5 pm until midnight and on Sunday from 3pm to 10pm. (Update: Entertainment starts at 4 pm on both days. Workshops on both days from 3-5 pm. There are some more changes to the programme above to include local artists). Don't miss what promises to be a very entertaining weekend with a wandering arts festival. The performances are located at the end of the pier in the inner harbour and are free of charge, but donations will be appreciated, I'm sure.
The festival had initially been planned to take place last weekend, but was moved forward by one week. Some of the musicians used the delay to play a few impromptu low-key gigs in the meantime to enthusiastic crowds, like their excellent Jazz band (below, sorry for the poor image quality):

Festival postponed

The festival 'Festina Lente' planned for the coming weekend has been postponed and will now take place one week later. More about this 'wandering arts festival' soon...

The unique whistled language of La Gomera

Above UNESCO video is still one of the best introductions to El Silbo, La Gomera's unique whistled language. It was released by the organisation when El Silbo became recognised by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009. Click El Silbo to find out more...

Live music returning to Valle Gran Rey

Guitars are for playing - not shelving !
...nice idea, though, spotted in a bar in V.G.R.

There's been a notable and most welcome increase in small live music gigs all around Valle Gran Rrey on La Gomera lately. Some bars such as 'Ramiro's' at the bus station in La Calera, the Cacatua in Vueltas, Manolo's bar 'Teguerguenche' in La Puntilla and the Gomera Lounge in La Playa (they even invested in sound proofing) are hosting live music fairly regularly again and other bars and restaurants have followed suit. La Gomera's best and most eclectic live venue is once again the social club 'Casa La Familia' where they now hold concerts and spontaneous sessions as private parties, but all are welcome to attend and become members for the night. This cosmopolitan place is just off the main track towards the statue along the beach in La Playa, up a bit beside a rough looking builder's yard. Their facebook page usually lists the main events and highlights the bohemian atmosphere with a distinct 70's hippy touch. You never know what may happen there musically, and a few years ago I met a well known jazz musician from the US who joined an impromptu session in dusty Casa La Familia in his expensive suit and was very happy to have found live music in those days when it had almost died here due to the repressive interpretation of some regulations which made it almost impossible to play music.

Local musicians still find it hard though to get paying gigs and legendary music bar and meeting place Bar Maria is still closed and for sale. Also some bars and venues remain fearful of a sometimes over-enforced law and/or punctilious and jealous  neighbours.

The once very promising Valle Luna Festival is still not happening officially again this year, but many musicians and groups such as the 'Gomera Street Band' will descend into Valle Gran Rey in February again this year and will surely find spots and venues to treat us to their performances. 

Overall it appears that the situation has greatly improved but it still is not back to the times when the slogan for the island was 'La Gomera es Musica !'. It is time to take the dust off the 'Musicians Welcome' signs - after all it simply is good business and most tourists and visitors are forever asking for live music.

We're keeping our fingers crossed while enjoying a bit of music again...

I've newly included an Events tab in my menu bar above. This will direct you to a website listing some events on La Gomera. It is not a complete list of events here and i found it to contain some errors (e.g. location of bars, etc), but hopefully they will correct that and improve this welcome service. 

New tourist office and interpretative centre

Church La Asuncion (left) and new tourist office with interpretative centre  (2 doors on right)

The previous tourist office in the small colonial customs house near the main square in San Sebastian de La Gomera, which in its courtyard boasts the well which is said to have provided the water for Christopher Columbus to baptise the New World with. This is now closed for renovations and will reopen as a museum. The tourist office has moved 200 yards up the main pedestrianised street to a beautifully-restored Spanish colonial house occupying the corner of the square in front of the historic church La Asuncion.

The new tourist office in La Gomera's capital is already open to the public and will be launched officially in a few days' time. The same building also houses a very attractive new interpretative centre themed on the island's geology and culture, titled The Memory of Stones. All displays and exhibits are labelled in English as well as in Spanish and very attractively presented, making this interpretative centre a must-see when in San Sebastian. The entrance is through the bright courtyard and the remainder of the building will be used for exhibitions.

Inside La Gomera's new interpretative centre