The Festival of the Spirit kicks off with its gold edition

It’s finally here. The gold edition of International Cervantino Festival (FIC) is underway, the first 50 years of the Festival of the Spirit, which since 1972 has had a labyrinth as its epicenter, the most beautiful city in Mexico, a title that is endorsed as many times as necessary just by taking a look from the parts high of its intricate orography, Guanajuato capital, declared by UNESCO in December 1988 as Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

With the 50th edition of the FIC, after two extremely limited versions, the city of Guanajuato it will once again be that place where everything happens at the same time, a multi-ring circus, the urban amphitheater where anyone in this multicolored hole is a spectator of the rivers of crowds that irrigate its alleys.

Throughout 19 days, from October 12 to 30, Guanajuato capital will welcome several of the luminaries representing the different artistic disciplines, mainly from South Korea and Mexico City, country and entity Guests of Honor.

“The most popular in history”

The 50th edition of the FIC will be the most widespread version in history, with more than 176 television stations from the country and abroad that will give evidence of what will happen in the city of Guanajuato throughout the 19 days of activities. Likewise, the golden version of the so-called Fiesta del Espíritu will have an unprecedented attendance, with a record number of tickets displaced a few hours before the start of activities, with more than 50 shows with sold-out locations among the 137 functions on sale.

This was highlighted by the director of the FIC, Mariana Aymerich Ordóñez, during the opening protocol ceremony in a renovated Juárez Theater, where the federal Secretary of Culture, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero; the head of government of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo; the Minister of Culture of South Korea, Park Bo-gyoon; the Asian country’s ambassador to Mexico, Suh Jeong-in, and the governor of Guanajuato, Diego Sinhue Rodríguez, among other federal, state and capital officials.

Before starting, we are certain that the venues will be full. The 50th edition will be a successful and safe party”, remarked Aymerich Ordóñez and later highlighted that “reaching 50 is reaching adulthood. We want this festival to remain youthful, avant-garde and diverse”.

For his part, the Minister of Culture of South Korea, Guest of Honor country in the framework of 60 years of diplomatic relations with Mexico, described the FIC as “the best festival in the world” and declared:

“The Mexican poet and Nobel Prize laureate, Octavio Paz, said: ‘the party is an explosion, death and life, jubilation and lamentation, singing and howling join forces in our festivities.’ Mexico is a country of parties, the party is the stage where originality, novelty, vision and passion are produced. In this way, the essence of Mexican culture has been developed and the Cervantino International Festival has come to show us this essence”.

Cervantine awards

Immediately afterwards, the federal Secretary of Culture, Alejandra Frausto Guerrero, and the director of the FIC, Mariana Aymerich Ordóñez, presented the first of three Cervantine Awards. This one, for the Teatro Juárez technician, Isidro Guerrero, who is part of that vital army “that behind the scenes makes it possible for us to enjoy the great productions, miracle workers who manage to assemble and disassemble large productions in a matter of hours so that we can enjoy of a wide range of artistic expressions.

For its part, the federal Secretary of Culture announced that the rest of the Cervantine Awards will be awarded throughout the meeting to the painter Carmen Parra and the conductor Enrique Diemecke.

From K-pop to euthanasia

It would be prudent to begin the review of outstanding performances with an unprecedented event in the inaugural concert, which took place last night, with the Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Japanese-American conductor Scott Yoo and the voices of renowned sopranos María Katzarava ( Mexico) and Hera Hyesang Park (South Korea), who delighted the Cervantes audience with arias by Mozart, Catalani and Beethoven in an opportunity that may never be repeated.

From a window to K-pop, represented by the KARD group, whose four albums produced so far have occupied the Top 10 on the popularity charts in Korea and the United States, through the friend band Café Tacvba, which overflowed the center of the city during the closing of the FIC 2008 and that will return this Saturday to the esplanade of the Alhóndiga de Granaditas in the company of the Symphony of the University of Guanajuato, until the presentations of Joan Manuel Serrat, who will cover almost six decades of experience; or Wynton Marsalis, considered one of the great trumpeters in history, along with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and the inevitable appearance of Goran Bregovic and his Wedding and Funeral Band.

Tribute to Mario Lavista

Not to mention the heartfelt tribute ‘Sound Light’, which next week the celebrated choreographer Claudia Lavista will pay to her father, the composer Mario Lavista, a frequent friend of the FIC who died in November 2021, or of the German theater company Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg , which makes use of the decriminalization of assisted suicide in Germany in 2020 to build the staging ‘From Life’, which will be presented at the State Auditorium, and the tribute that the FIC will pay to the person responsible for its gestation, Enrique Ruelas , creator of the Cervantes Entremeses, with the presentation of the work ‘The collector of clouds’. All of this is just a handful of the incomprehensible offer that the FIC 50 has to fully reconnect with its public.

ricardo.quiroga@eleconomista.mx

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