From village fairs to the top of the festival scene: the phenomenon of the Chiclana de la Frontera Concert Music Festival

A large part of the live music business in Spain is cornered by multinationals and investment funds. But there are still family-run businesses that, without any stake in the sector giant, have managed to climb the ranks and organize record-breaking tours and top festivals across half the country. They resist the pressure of the big boys, just as Asterix and Obelix repelled the fearsome Romans from their Gallic village.

One such company is the Concert Tour group, based in the Cádiz municipality of Sanlúcar de Barrameda . It began in the mid-1990s and gained experience at town fairs. They brought in orchestras, set up stalls, installed bouncy castles, and even organized children's parties. From there, they went on to organize festivals in iconic locations, with their flagship being the Concert Music Festival of Chiclana de la Frontera (Cádiz), held in a unique setting: the old fishing village of Sancti Petri, surrounded by marshes and overlooking Sancti Petri Castle, a structure dating back to Roman times and used in the Middle Ages to protect the Cádiz coast from pirate and corsair attacks.

The Chiclana Concert Music Festival takes place here during the months of July and August, covering an area of 8,000 square meters and with a capacity for around 6,000 people . This edition is the eighth in a musical cycle that began in 2018 and was halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. This summer, around 180,000 spectators will attend the fifty concerts and shows scheduled. The closing performance will be on August 17 with Camilo . But before that, artists of all kinds will take to the Chiclana stage: Duki , Amaia , Antonio Orozco , Nathy Peluso , Rels B, Residente , Lionel Richie , and Tom Jones , among others.

The legendary duo Pecos is doing a double act: they performed in July and are back on August 14th. Pecos, who triumphed in the late 70s and 80s, have returned to the stage in force to commemorate the 45th anniversary of their debut and rise to number one on the charts. They are one of the groups that regularly tours with the Cádiz-based company Concert Tour. "It's one of the most successful in the country, with 36 concerts attended by nearly 250,000 people, with sold-out shows in Madrid, Barcelona..." summarizes Rafael Casillas , CEO of the company. Nostalgia drives legions of fans.

Something similar is happening with El Último de la Fila, another duo that triumphed in the 1980s and 1990s and will be touring in 2026 with their Concert Tour. This year, there will be 12 concerts in different cities across the country, expected to be attended by some 375,000 people. Truly staggering numbers for artists who haven't had a hit on the charts for years.

Previous editions of the Chiclana Concert Music Festival have featured Scorpions, Sting, Maluma, Aitana, Lola Índigo, Juan Luis Guerra, Luis Miguel, Alejandro Sanz, and El Barrio, among a long list of artists of all stripes and for all audiences.

Concert Tour's magic potion at Chiclana's musical event is offering good music and "unique experiences" in an almost magical setting, accompanied by first-class local cuisine, says Casillas, who is highly critical of the current festival scene proliferating in every city, lacking much of a structure to support them and lacking the necessary audience. " Everything is over-inflated, and things that aren't festivals are called festivals . Going to a venue, seeing an artist, and going home isn't a festival. For it to be one, there has to be an experience around it," summarizes the CEO of the Concert Tour group.

He also laments the unhealthy competition that sometimes arises between city councils and promoters when it comes to signing an artist. Everyone wants to have the artist in their city, even if they've performed 80 kilometers away. When that happens, prices skyrocket, and the show itself loses. "The thing is, there just isn't enough audiences for all the festivals being scheduled lately. That's why many people already know which places are worth going to and which aren't," Casillas explains.

The CEO of the Concert Tour group boasts about the artists parading through Chiclana and also about the gastronomic offerings. Antonio oversees the menu at Zahara de los Atunes restaurant, which features Sanlúcar prawns, Huelva shrimp, Sancti Petri-style octopus, fried fish from the Bay of Cádiz, and a retinta beef burger. All of the above are local products of the highest quality, not always found at summer festivals. You can even dine on lobster at this musical series on the shores of the marshes! And what about the drinks menu: from Dom Perignon champagne to Manzanilla Solear, including all kinds of gins, rums, vodkas, and whiskeys, and up to eight different cocktails.

The Chiclana festival is attended by all kinds of people, especially the thousands of tourists who fill the Cadiz coast every summer: from the capital to Tarifa , passing through Conil , Barbate and also El Puerto de Santa María , Rota , Chipiona ... "We are another complement so that visitors who are in the area do not get bored," jokes Casillas, who believes that an enclave like the Cadiz coast or cities like Seville "do not need a festival to attract new visitors."

At the venue, which is privileged in itself, "there are no VIP areas or photocalls for celebrities because everyone is equal here and the only stars you can see are those in the Sancti Petri sky," he points out.

When they close the doors in Chiclana, the Concert Tour group will move to Seville next September with the Noches de la Maestranza, a series of concerts at the Seville bullring expected to feature Joaquín Sabina, Ana Belén, Antonio Orozco, Camilo, Vanesa Martín, and Raphael. They also manage the Cabaret Festival, which tours various Andalusian cities, a festival in Córdoba, and are partners in the musical programming at the Las Ventas bullring in Madrid. "And we will continue to grow," Casillas announces. This is what this family business has done in the nearly three decades it has been trying to offer the best entertainment. From Sanlúcar de Barrameda and the Cadiz coast to the rest of the country. Should the investment funds tremble?