From the legacy of Los Van Van to the reinterpretation of Fillas de Cassandra, through the combative fusion of Asian Dub Foundation or the renewed tradition of The Zawose Queens. The 29th edition of Etnosur, which starts this Thursday (July 16 to 19) in Alcalá la Real, once again demonstrates that world music continues to evolve when respect for tradition coexists with the will to reinvent it.
It is enough to look at the poster to understand the approach of this edition. Ethnosur He does not confront generations, he puts them in conversation. And that conversation goes far beyond the age of its artists: it talks about how each one understands legacy, tradition, and their ability to continue evolving. This philosophy has accompanied the Ethnic Meetings of the Sierra Sur since its birth and is once again reflected in a program that turns Alcalá la Real into a meeting point between cultures for four days.
The best example is found in the names that lead the musical programming. The Van Van They represent more than half a century of history of Cuban popular music and continue to be an essential reference to understand the evolution of salsa. At another creative extreme they appear Asian Dub Foundationpioneers in breaking down boundaries between dub, punk, drum and bass, rap and electronica while turning political activism into an inseparable part of their artistic proposal.
Between both extremes there lives a generation that understands tradition as a starting point. There they appear Cassandra Rowsprotagonists of the cover of the June issue of MondoSonoro, who have turned Galician folklore and oral tradition into raw material to build one of the most personal discourses on the current scene. His performance in Fair Grounds will share the spotlight with The Van Van, Kanazoé Orkestra, Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan and Asian Dub Foundation. While, Town Hall Square will once again serve as one of the great hearts of the festival with proposals such as Delamesetain charge of opening the musical program on Thursday, together with Afrosideral, The Zawose Queens and Ben Zabo on Friday, and now on Saturday D’Chipen either Lucky Salvadoridemonstrating that at Etnosur music always overflows the main stage.
But limiting Etnosur to the official musical program would be to lose sight of a good part of its personality. The programming demonstrates, once again, that the festival understands culture in a transversal way. On Thursday, the cinema will open the event with a session of short films directed by Javier Fesserwho will receive the Etnosur Award 2026 in recognition of a career that has made imagination and commitment two of its main hallmarks. During the weekend, the Martínez Montañés Theater will continue hosting a film series with titles by Marcel Barrena and Isabel Coixet, while the Abacial Palace will once again be the scene of the debate forums, the Paseo de los Álamos will concentrate a good part of the workshopsthe Etnochill sessions and the craft marketand the Ethnoteca will extend the nights of the Fairgrounds with the sessions of Telephunken and Marcos Boricua. More than a festival with several stages, Etnosur remains a festival that spreads throughout the city.
The circus programming will once again be another of the great attractions of this edition. Friday will arrive”POI“, from the company D’estroa proposal that combines contemporary circus and Mediterranean culture, while on Saturday the spotlight will be on a collective cabaret presented by Carolina Montoya. Added to this are dozens of participatory workshops dedicated to yoga, instrument construction, sustainability, calligraphy, urban art, screen printing or the circus, as well as exhibitions, oral narration, the Literature Classroom with Benjamin Prado and Shuarma, consolidating a program that transcends the strictly musical and keeps the open and family vocation of the festival intact.
Etnosur has never understood world music as a simple stylistic label. It has turned them into a way of looking, sharing and discovering other realities. Perhaps that is why, when the poster puts historical figures in dialogue with artists who are reformulating traditions from the present, it does nothing more than reflect the philosophy that has sustained the festival for almost thirty years. A place where legacy finds meaning precisely because someone is still committed to renewing it.
All the information, all the programming on the Etnoweb!
