In my home town (popn: 30,000), 'live music' meant kids' recorder recitals; art exhibitions were shown at the library, maybe twice a year. Any other “cultural events” belonged in the city for rich intellectuals or poor, dissolute students and was distrusted or condemned.
But Spain has never become uncomfortable with culture: like education it is seen as an unalloyed good. Every town has a Casa de la Cultura, and that's in addition to a town hall and a library. All show exhibitions of local and foreign art – icons and objects; paintings, sketches and photographs. Then there are galleries like those in Cómpeta or Nerja. There's even artwork on sale in most of the bars and restaurants. And every village has its own brass band and church choir and the kids all learn dancing from age four.
My town might have coped with this much, but would have been appalled by the summer fiestas, those three day parties with foam in the day and dancing and drinking all night and europop blasted out till the townhouses' windows vibrate. That doesn't seem very 'cultural' to everyone, but there are other events that pack a punch. Canillas de Albaida holds a Festival de Flamenco in June; Cómpeta's Night of the Wine competes with this in August; Salares celebrates a Fiesta Arabe in September. Canillas and Sayalonga both hold a week long 'culture week'.
All these are classically Spanish affairs, fitting tourist expectations and clustered into the long summer. It's still possible to imagine that these hill villages are so busy being quaint that there's nothing else on, especially in winter with few tourists and money saved for or spent on Christmas: you expect that out-of-season silence you get at the coast.
Yet there's been a boom in music gigs held in the bars and restaurants here. Perhaps it's the economic downturn encouraging competition, but there's been an upturn in live music. I'm writing this at the back-end of November. It's too late in the year to catch Tatiana Lopez dancing flamenco at the Almijara restaurant or Vino y Pasas playing at the Plaza Restaurant. Yet in the space of two weekends in Canillas de Albaida, Archez or Cómpeta I could see Straw Dogs, Guiri, Elvis, Blues and Beyond, Andy Time, Vagablondes, Acoustic Roots or Silver Fox.
That's a lot of bands, a lively mix of styles and a lot of choice. And that's the scene in just three villages with a combined population of about 5,000! My conclusion? Get about and see what's on and out there, not just for Christmas and New Year but for December and January too, or you'll miss out. I should be doing this too: I don't know what's on in Sayalonga and Corumbela or Salares and Sedella, but if the bars in Canillas de Albaida are anything to go by, they'll be humming.
Rose Jones
