Many towns and villages, taking advantage of the warm summer nights, put on outdoor concerts. However, the most highly regarded performance of this kind is probably the
Havanera Concert in Calella de Palafrugell, which will be celebrating its 46th anniversary on
Saturday 7 July.
Calella is a small cluster of white houses nestling beside the sea, a village that has managed to preserve all the charm of the fishing villages of yesteryear. It already draws visitors in good numbers, but on the first Saturday in July they come along in much greater numbers still. Everyone tries to get a place in the precinct arranged in Port Bo cove, where the stage is set up, though the singing can be enjoyed from other spots on giant screens. For the fact is that in no time at all the village is full to bursting, with the sea providing further vantage points for the boats that anchor by the cove for the people on board to listen.
If you decide to come along this year, come along early in the day to enjoy the beach or to get to know the village. That way you will dodge the parking problems and find a good spot for listening to the singing.
The singing event fills the streets and squares.
In the late afternoon, go for a stroll around the narrow streets and have a look at the craft stalls set up on Passeig del Canadell street. You can also go to see the church square (Plaça de l’Església) and the Havanera Market to while away the time before hearing the first of the evening’s performances at 18:00 – a foretaste of what the night has in store.
The main singing event will start at 22:30. This year there are five groups singing songs that were brought back from the Caribbean by colonial ships in the nineteenth century. Apart from the usual Port Bo and Peix Fregit singers from Palafrugell, the groups performing will also include Arrels de Menorca, Lucrecia Arjau and La Taverna. They will all be singing their way through traditional and not-so-traditional songs, and will all come together at the end to intone the two mandatory songs: “La Bella Lola”, during which the audience wave their handkerchiefs above their heads, and “El meu avi”, for which the entire audience joins in.