The Barcelona summer festival Grec closes its 48th edition with a balance of 136,000 spectators, “a success in a year marked by the projection of local talent and international vocation”, explained this Friday its director, Cesc Casadesús, who leaves the post after eight years at the helm.
This weekend the last performances of Who are we?which the Barón de Evel company is performing at the Teatre Grec until Sunday, and over the next few days the curtain will be drawn on the last performances of the Grec Ciudad, which will run until August 4.
It has been five weeks of proposals, with an extensive programme of 85 shows and more than 50 activities, with an excellent reception by the public, Casadesús summarised. The figures show an increase of more than 16,000 spectators in theatres compared to 2023, between the Grec Festival and Grec City.
The Councillor for Culture, Xavier Marcé, has praised Casadesús’s management in dealing with “this dichotomy between the festival and the summer season, or in other words, the Grec Montaña and the Grec Ciudad”. For Marcé, Casadesús has managed to “affirm and reaffirm local and non-local artistic trajectories; consolidate the diversity of audiences; offer a showcase for the performing arts of the world; and ensure an excellent relationship with international festivals and programmes”.
The Grec Montjuïc has recorded an average attendance of 96% and 21 of the 27 Grec Ciudad venues have exceeded 75% occupancy, although, Casadesús recalled, many of the shows presented in these theatres will be part of their seasons from September onwards. For Marcé, “the challenge now is to reach the rest of the neighbourhoods with this data, something that not only the Grec but also the Mercè festivals and literary festivals must face”.
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Cesc Casadesús has confessed: “The farewell is exciting, but not distressing because there is already a replacement, Leticia Martín Ruiz, with whom we have worked together for three months” and who will take over the direction from next September 1. According to its director, El Grec proposed a commitment to local talent and “it has worked, because in ten of the eleven proposals the tickets were sold out and that has also forged a relationship with the artists”.
This year’s program has drawn on the hallmarks of its direction: local talent The Count of Torrefiel to La Veronal, from Pau Vallvé and Rita Payés to Sílvia Pérez Cruz and all their collaborators.
It has been an edition to strengthen the creative alliances forged over the years, with the presence of artists that the festival has helped to grow and other world-renowned artists who had not come, such as Krzysztof Warlikowski, Christiane Jatahy or Hofesh Shechter, with proposals that have confirmed “a greater interest from the local public in international shows, which have gone from 70% to 90% occupancy at the Teatre Lliure”.
Although there were 16,000 more attendees this year than in 2023, Casadesús pointed out that this year there were four more days of programming at the Teatre Grec. The profile of the Grec Festival’s audience is mostly from Barcelona city (60%) and almost 30% more from the metropolitan region. At both Grec Montjuïc and Grec Ciudad, the audience is similar: a female audience, consumer of cultural shows throughout the year and loyal to the festival; and the first audience analyses this year indicate that 65% of the spectators are new audiences. The number of subscribers also increased, from 2,200 to 3,300 this year.
Casadesús has pointed out that as a multidisciplinary festival, a large part of that 65% of new audience is linked to the musical proposals. At the time of farewell, Casadesús, “rather than talking about legacy”, prefers to think that “the Grec will continue to support contemporary creation and local talent”.
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