Long run
The Festival Mil·lenni is an odd creature. First off, there’s the name. The event started in 1999 to welcome in the new millennium, so it all made perfect sense back then, but today... Perhaps the organisers are planning to hold it for the next 991 years. That wouldn’t be a surprise because they seem to like events that go on and on and on. This year’s festival lasts almost five months, which is presumably a good way to coordinate the diaries of the 32 acts taking part, but that’s a long run by anyone’s standards. And, apart from it clearly being a ‘music’ festival, it’s a difficult event to categorise; to say the line-up is eclectic feels like the last great understatement of 2009. The presence of Michael Bolton, playing his first-ever Barcelona concert (January 14th) and Greek-Egyptian icon Demis Roussos (February 4th) suggests that it is a retro easy-listening extravaganza. But the festival’s second concert, taking place this month on the 11th, features Russian Red, AKA the young, strikingly pretty Spanish singer Lourdes Hernández, who sings cool folk pop in English with a memorable (and unaccented) Cyndi Lauper-esque voice.
Of the other 29 acts, it’s like a giant audio pick ‘n’ mix. Some of the participants seem to turn up to the Mil·lenni year in, year out (I’m looking at you Michael Nyman, February 24th), while others are fresher on the music scene (Melody Gardot, April 14th and Joss Stone, February 11th). Non-English language artists are well represented, too, with fado singer Dulce Pontes (March 4th), sarsuela from Angeles Blancas (December 30th) and flamenco from Tomatito (February 5th). Local performers include Catalan rumba maestro Peret (February 11th) and Mallorcan singer Maria del Mar Bonet (April 6th). Elsewhere, hippy chick Joan Baez will play old and new material (March 2nd), while Woody Allen will be getting his clarinet out yet again—and looking for audiences willing to pay up to €98 to see him do it (March 28th).
11 Festival Mil·lenni
Palau de la Música Catalana, L’Auditori and Gran Teatre del Liceu
December 9th to April 20th, 2010; €12 to €98