The Backpackers Hostel Blog

Jazz
Barcelona has a flourishing jazz community comprised of local talent as well as musicians from NY, London, and elsewhere abroad. Jazz can be found through out the city very night at Jamboree in Plaza Real. Monday night is their Jam Session, 3€. Make sure if you’re going, you get there early (10:30pm) before it gets too packed. The Jazz Room isn’t quite as centrally located, but it’s always worth the trip (Cova del Drac C/Vallmajor, 33; FCG Muntaner). Bel Luna on Rambla Cataluña just above Plaza Cataluña is a jazz restaurant with live music nightly. Dos Trece in El Raval has live music downstairs with a jazz jam session Tuesday night (c/Carme 12am). The Harlem Jazz Club doesn’t stick strictly to its name. On c/Comtessa de Sobriadiel, 8, near the often sketchy Plaza George Orwell, has great music every night, but it isn’t always jazz, with no cover charge during the week.

Rock and Concerts
Big concerts in Barcelona from Clapton to Madonna are held in the Palau de San Jordi on Montjuic. ServiCaixa and Telentrada or visit FNAC for tickets. Razzmatazz (Almogavers 122, tel:93 320 82 00) has medium sized shows for the likes of Anni DiFranco. Bikini (Deu i Mata, 105 behind L’Illa mall), Luz de Gas, and its neighbor Sala B (Muntaner 246, 244) have live music of variety of sorts most nights around 12, later transforming into discoteques, as does La Boite on Av. Diagonal, 477. Irish pubs such as George & the Dragon (c/Diputación with Paseo de Gracia), Irish Winds in Port Olympic, and the Filharmonic (Mallorca, 204) tend to have live rock music almost ever night usually without a cover charge where you can enjoy a pint or 3 with your live music in a smaller setting.

More info: www.scenicwalkingbcn.com

Event dates: June to end August 2010
Event location: Various parks in Barcelona
“Música als Parcs.” From the last week of June until the end of August every year you can enjoy free outdoor concerts in many of Barcelona’s parks. The concerts are called “Music in the Parks” and are organized by the Barcelona City Council. The program of summer concerts in parks was started more than ten years ago with the aim of bringing high quality music for everyone during the summer nights.  All concerts are free and intended for all audiences.
The first concert of 2010 Musica als Parcs is with Sant Adreu Jazz Band – the youngest big band in Europe on – Wednesday 2nd June at 20.00 in the Jardins del Teatre Grec

   Full “Musica als Parcs 2010″ programme

From www.barcelonayellow.com

The auditorium of the Botanical Gardens of Caixa Girona, situated in an exceptional location next to the sea, host the Jardins de Cap Roig Festival for another year running. The festival was created by Caixa Girona Foundation, with the intention of creating a summer festival that showcases different stylistic genres on the Center of the Costa Brava.
Dance, world music, opera, jazz and classical music form the basis of the festival program, which seeks to offer rigor, quality, originality and creativity, in addition to its diversity. These qualities underlie performances that are aimed at a wide public audience. Great figures from the world of theatre have brought, and will continue to bring, their art to the Cap Roig auditorium, a benchmark amongst summer festivals.
Well consolidated and endorsed by a public audience that fills the auditorium year after year, the Jardins de Cap Roig Festival has become a meeting point where the complicity between artists and spectators create singular and special nights.

30 july            Rosana
31 july            Diana Krall
01 august       Sinéad O’Connor     
02 august       Roger Hodgson     
03 august       Antonio Orozco
04 august       Marlango
05 august       Julio Iglesias     
06 august       Julio Iglesias
07 august       Ainhoa Arteta with the Vallès Symphony Orchestra
08 august       The Little Magic Flute     
10 august       Macaco
12 august       Boeing Boeing
13 august       Diego ‘El Cigala’
14 august       Pasión Vega     
15 august       Stars of the New York City Ballet
16 august       Charles Aznavour     
17 august       Charles Aznavour

More info: www.festival.caproig.cat

Large venues: discovering the city 

Sunday 1st August 2009 to Wednesday 1st September 2010
Although the Mas i Mas Group was originally founded on the idea of providing regular live music in small venues, in early 2000 it felt it necessary to export part of their musical activity to larger venues, in an effort to publicize a host of artists who triumphed in our venues and bring our work to new audiences as well as expand the group’s business to the artistic promotion sector. This was, among others, one of the triggers that lead us to consider an annual festival in the city of Barcelona during the month of August.

The highlight this year will be a free concert in Plaça Reial as a tribute to the Jamboree club which celebrate 50 years of music in 2010. The festival takes place in various venues in Barcelona. The Palau de la Musica chamber music room will host three Latin and jazz concerts daily during the festival. La Pedrera takes part with three classical concerts a day (not on the roof though). Tarantos flamenco bar will have six flamenco sessions a day. And there will be concerts and sessions at Moog, The Auditori, Luz de Gas and Jamboree.

More info: www.masimas.com

In a exceptional location, close to Hotel Arts, in front of the beach of Barceloneta, you can find the new Opium Mar a playful and multipurposal space that perfectly combines the own advantages of a day-restaurant with the greatest terrace of Barcelona next to the sea, with the concept of leisure that presently offers the restaurant-bar-discotheque for the nights. Opium Mar is the latest luxurious lounge to open along the Barceloneta seafront.  Check out the special theme parties that take place here, and the up-for-it party atmosphere of the regular club nights.  Resident DJs include Gigi El Amoros, Al Muñoz and Frank Morin. 

More info: www.opiummar.com

 The Labyrinth Park of Horta is Barcelona is widely considered to be the most beautiful park and gardens in Barcelona. Despite its beauty it is not that well known and often quite empty, which only adds to the tranquility and beauty of this spot in Barcelona.  All around the park there are many  lovely corners, nooks and crannies, where you can relax and enjoy flowers beds, sculptures, fountains, springs and pools.
There is an admission fee, but on Sundays the park is free.  To preserve the delicate environment and structures of the park  only 750 visitors at the same time are allowed inside.

The name of the park is from the popular labyrinth of trimmed cypress bushes. The theme of the gardens and of the labyrinth is love. At the entrance of the labyrinth there is a marble bas-relief depicting Ariadne and Theseus from the greek legend of the labyrinth.  You will probably not need Ariadnes’s thread to find your way out, but it can take up to 20 minutes. In the centre of the labyrinth you come across a small statue of the god Eros.

Take the metro to the station Mundet Metro on the green Line 3. When you get out of Mundet metro station, it is a 10 minute slight uphill walk to the Horta labyrinth park.

Opening times Parc del Laberint d’Horta:

Thank you for sharing this project with your friends

Vicente Ferrer organization, founded by a former Jesuit priest, has been working for over 50 years to better the condition of the “untouchable” class and other disenfranchised people in India. The foundation is based in Anantapur, a remote region in the Andra Pradesh region, devastated by constant drought. In that region, the most marginalized in Indian society live in the midst of a dry and rocky landscape.  Forty years ago in that rural, abandoned region, Vicente Ferrer dedicated himself to planning the “miracle seed,” as he termed it, giving the farmers their first rupees through microloans. Through these means, the first wells were built, crops were planted and the first businesses started. In 1969, before he received international awards such as the Prince Asturias prize, Ferrer wrote, “I’ve declared war on pain and suffering.” Those words help start a peaceful war that motivated millions of people.

The foundation has developed a colossal organization that today supports 2,278 villages and benefits 2.5 million people. Today, Anantapur has three hospitals, an HIV/AIDS center, and 11 rural clinics, more than 1,180 schools where 100% of the local children are enrolled, 21,000 homes for the poor and 1,000 homes for the disabled.

Foundation’s website (only in Spanish): www.fundacionvicenteferrer.org

Information in English: download PDF

Niu is a community that supports and helps artists flourish. Going beyond simply hosting exhibitions, concerts and workshops, the space offers creative services to companies and artists alike. They employ dancers, DJs, graffiti artists and others for parties and festivals and even help artists build their websites and create press releases.

FunDub 2009 :: ecos de una ciudad :: Barcelona from FunDub on Vimeo.