Cruïlla, a rainy-wet finale

The 15th edition of the Cruïlla Festival concluded this Saturday with a last-minute rain shower, which hampered, but didn't stop, the music at the Parc del Fòrum. The threat of a downpour—which turned out to be light—forced the organizers to delay the opening of the day by just over three hours, until 9:30 p.m., following the recommendations of the Civil Protection Agency. This setback led to the rescheduling of the Love of Lesbian concert to 2:00 a.m., as well as the cancellation of Hermanos Gutiérrez and Maika Makovski, in addition to the entire dance and comedy section. Considerable cuts that, in any case, didn't prevent the celebration of this fourth day of the festival, which also featured Quimi Portet, Viva Suecia, Madrid's Alcalá Norte, and Kaiser Chiefs, all postponed until 4:30 a.m.

At the time the concerts were scheduled to start, the terraces closest to the Forum were packed with Cruïlla attendees who, patiently and in good spirits, waited for the doors to reopen while sarcastically celebrating the mobile phone signals informing them of the reduced risk. Finally, the entrances opened at 9 p.m., with 10,000 people entering in the first 50 minutes, while the queues continued to reach 25,000 people after midnight.

Pau Vallvé and León Benavente welcomed the 10,000 attendees who entered in the first 50 minutes.

"Has this shit sounded familiar to you?" asked Pau Vallvé, who accidentally opened the evening with around twenty drummers and a growing audience from the start with Buguenvíl·lies. The Barcelona-born musician performed a trio of songs from his latest album, Agorafília , without forgetting to revisit songs like Berenar sopar, Penalti i gol és gol , and the celebrated Protagonistes .

Leon Benavente's concert started almost at the same time, with so many people on the Occident stage that you wouldn't believe there had been a delay. The indie quartet kicked off a high-octane guitar-fueled evening with songs like La Ribera and the punk rhythm of Baile Existelista, making us forget the cool breeze that swept through the space as a reminder of the disaster that never happened.

With the evening's thread well-stitched, it was time for Alanis Morisette, who felt it necessary to show a short video biography of her career before kicking off her performance, anchored by a revisitation of "Jagged Little Pill," the song that catapulted the Canadian singer-songwriter to fame in 1995. Before appearing before the audience in front of an enormous moon, she sang a slow version of "One Hand in My Pocket ," in case anyone didn't know who was on stage.

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On the other side, a massive audience awaited her, the largest of the four days, to attend the concert by the Canadian, who was accompanied by a quintet of bass, drums, keyboards and two guitars, to which Morisette joined in some songs with a third guitar, such as in Head Over Feet.

A lady of rock when this concept oscillated between joke and sacrilege, Morisette didn't rely on stage tricks or costume changes. Alone on the big stage, she defended her work, demonstrating vocal fortitude and the capacity for boasting, as in the case of "You Learn" or "All I Really Want ," replete with her trademark trills that found a return from the audience, happy to sing along to songs they knew like "Ironic" or "You Oughta Know" before, already in the encores, Morisette went wild jumping and running all over the stage while "Uninvited" played, an example of her more experimental side.

The Canadian's magnetism had some collateral beneficiaries: those who chose to see Quimi Portet on the Vallformosa stage, packed but not overcrowded. A "super sexy" stage, in Portet's words, which began with Montserrat and continued on La Rambla with a performance where he also performed. Winter Festival or I Have a Beast in My Heart, creating a good-natured atmosphere fostered by the acidic comments of the musician who will perform two concerts at the Olympic Stadium next year with El ultimo de la fila.

Viva Suecia's indie rock served as a link to Love of Lesbian, who finally made their appearance at 2 a.m. to celebrate Cruïlla's anniversary party. The Barcelona quartet, which presented its album "Ejército de Salvación " this Friday, surrounded itself last night with a musical army to celebrate its career with friends, including some of the participants last night at Cruïlla.

This was the case with Viva Suecia themselves, who were called upon to perform Los irrompibles , or Maika Makovski, who was unable to perform but did sing Tesis , providing the vocals where Zahara does in the original. The female presence included Maria Hein, Valeria Castro and Maruja Limón, while the duo Cala Vento appeared in La niña imantada and Figa Flawas in frecuentes ( Some plants). Marc Gili and Alizzz also joined the line-up in a memorable concert that Santi Balmes took advantage of to send messages to both Netanyahu and Mazón, among others, as well as to acknowledge the work of the Cruïlla organisers, who blew out the candles on a cake to the rhythm of Fantastic shine .

Rain of cancellations

A large number of festivals and concerts were canceled yesterday due to weather conditions. The Porta Ferrada festival in Sant Feliu de Guíxols canceled its opening performance last night, which was scheduled to be performed by the Swedish rock group Europe, "in compliance with the risk alerts issued by the authorities." The Peralada festival also canceled the performance of Handel's oratorio Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno by Les Arts Florissants, conducted by William Christie, "prioritizing the safety of the audience, artists, and crew." Meanwhile, the Grec festival in Barcelona canceled the performance of Ihsane, by choreographer Sisi Larbi Cherkaoui, and suspended the afternoon performance of the children's show Gènesi at the Teatre Lliure "because the actresses cannot arrive on time." Arrels, from Sant Sadurní d'Anoia, which had La Fúmiga as the headliner, was also unable to take place.

Until this Saturday, Cruïlla had been proceeding along its usual path, with an attendance of 59,000 through Friday. Added to the 25,000 last night, this represents a record number of visitors coinciding with the festival's anniversary (last year it was 77,000). This was evident this Friday with the presence of 23,000 people at the concert by 30 Seconds to Mars, Jared Leto's band, who appeared on stage firing a flamethrower into the air as a preface to a pyrotechnic display, complete with fire and lighting effects, to the intense and compulsive beat of the drums pounded by Shannon Leto, brother of the Oscar-winning actor.

Beyond the meteorological events, this edition will be remembered for the addition of a new stage dedicated to dance, a discipline that under the direction of the Brodas Bros has offered a new cultural gateway, not to mention the test of success with the holding of a fashion show on Wednesday.

This is the festival's way of expanding its formats, as it did years ago by including stand-up comedy, exhibitions of human tower building and baton balls, and urban art displays performed on-site. This year, these displays were not limited to the artists of this edition, but instead took a look at past protagonists.