Nuevo Imparcial.- Madrid is celebrating the festival of its patron saint, San Isidro Labrador, between 14 and 17 May. The Plaza Mayor, the gardens Vistillas and other streets and squares of all districts of the city will be the stage of an extensive cultural program, including rock concerts and operettas, comedy shows, regional dances, puppet shows and fireworks.
The mayor Ana Botella today presented the festival program and invited locals and visitors to enjoy » very special days, in which especially shines the spirit of a city full of talent and creativity, enterprising and full of opportunities, the vast capital of culture in Spanish. »
The festivities begin with the performance of Armenian musician Ara Malikian on Thursday, May 14, at 20 pm in the Plaza de la Villa. As a soloist, Malikian has been invited to more than forty countries and into cities such as New York, Paris, Vienna, Toronto and Madrid. He has collaborated in concerts of violin and orchestra, under the baton of conductors such as Mariss Jansons, Peter Maag and Jesus Lopez Cobos, among others. Malikian has played in major orchestras in Spain and just this year has presented his own, «The Orchestra on the Roof» in the Spanish Theatre of Madrid. The mayor praised the stature of the violinist ,and said «they open with their talent, energy and joy a festival where music is always present.»
Humour and fireworks
The International Puppet Festival Segovia, Titirimundi, stop in Madrid during the holidays with a selection of shows with special magic for streets and squares, which will include the show Mad Brass fanfares (Friday Plaza de los Carros, 11:30) and the Parade of the Federation of Madrid groups, with dances and fantasy (Sunday 17:00).
Pond Gardens El Retiro will host a festival of light and fireworks synchronized with music and reflected on the water, they will produce a show of stunning beauty, with the help of the pyrotechnics of Ricardo Caballer (Friday, 22 30) and Almudena (Saturday, 22:30).
In conclusion, El Retiro will offer on Sunday, May 17, at 12:00, the concert of the Symphonic Band of Madrid in the outdoor bandstand in El Retiro, “from May to September”.
A ‘catlike’ poster
Ana Botella thanked the artist Chema Fernández for his work in the «cat and Madrid culture” (gatuno y madrileñísimo) which was the design for the poster for this year’s festival of San Isidro. She also highlighted the very active participation of the districts in these celebrations, «because all of them, 21, are an essential and indispensable part of the city.»
A celebration that will have its epicentre, as highlighted by the Mayor, in the district of Carabanchel, «with the Pradera de San Isidro as a great setting for the devotion for the Saint and passion for Madrid and all it represents as the capital of Spain» . Madrid shows again this holiday season, said Bottle, «that it is is a city that always gives its best, mixing tradition and modernity like no other with ,what it was, what it is and what it wants to be.»