Saturday evenings in August, A La Luna de Barranda music festival in Caravaca
Four free concerts by Spanish folk groups in the village of Barranda
The annual “A La Luna de Barranda” season of free summer evening concerts is being held during the month of August with Spanish musicians delighting the audiences in the cool evenings of the high ground of north-western Murcia.
All of the events begin at 22.00 in the outdoor auditorium of the Museum of Ethnic Instruments in Barranda, which also houses the Blanco Fadol collection, and local councillors anticipate that this will be a particularly well attended cycle due to its coinciding with the 2024 Holy Jubilee Year in the city of Caravaca de la Cruz.
The schedule for the Al La Luna de Barranda festival 2024 is as follows:
Saturday August 3: Cooldesac, a band from Alicante whose repertoire consists mainly of Irish music with elements of Scottish, Breton and Galician traditions.
Saturday August 10: Maestro Espada, a group from Murcia whose music has featured in series such as Élite and Reina Roja. They mix electronic sounds with traditional folk under the leadership of Alex Juárez and Víctor, a graduate of the Berklee School of Music.
Saturday August 17: Ursaria, a group from Madrid with typical popular folk tunes from the nation’s capital presented in a romantic vein.
Saturday August 24: Ana Alcaide, one of the best-known performers in Spain of folk and world music, who has performed all over Spain as well as abroad. She has been instrumental in the popularization of the “nyckelharpa” (keyed fiddle) in Spain, and her music is often described as being the definitive soundtrack of Toledo.
Further information about Caravaca and the Holy Jubilee Year in 2024 is available from the tourist office (Plaza de España, 7, telephone 968 702424, email turismo@caravacadelacruz.es).
Or for more local information, including the Holy Jubilee Year as well as local news and what’s on, go to the home page of Caravaca Today.
Oficina de Turismo de Caravaca de la Cruz
More information about the places of interest which can be visited in the municipality of Caravaca de la Cruz, along with what's on and local news can be found in the Caravaca Today.
Caravaca de la Cruz, in the north-west of the Region of Murcia, is one of only 5 Holy Cities in the Roman Catholic world, a centre of pilgrimage, along with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Santo Toribio de Liebana, and is home to the Cross of Caravaca, the Vera Cruz.
The status of Holy City was bestowed by Pope John Paul II in 1998, granting the City a Permanent Jubilee year every 7 years for perpetuity, the first one held in 2003 and the next in 2024.
The strategic and natural advantages of Caravaca de la Cruz have attracted the attention of settlers for more than 800,000 years, the Cueva Negra yielding remains of Homo Heidelbergensis, forbears of the Neanderthals and the municipality also houses important archaeological remains from the Argaric, Iberian and Roman cultures. many of these can be seen in the Municipal Archaeological Museum.
As a border town caught between the Catholic forces of Castille and the last remaining Moorish stronghold in Spain, Granada, Caravaca had a turbulent medieval history, but it was during this period that the legend of the Cross of Caravaca was born, bringing the religious orders which shaped the structure of Caravaca today, with its impressive hilltop castle and eclectic collection of churches and monasteries, religious tourism today being a backbone of the town´s economy.
Caravaca de la Cruz is a municipality with important natural resources, including extensive forests, part of which have protected status due to their wealth of flora and fauna, and due to the abundant water supplies is also a major area for canned fruit production, apricots in particular being an important crop.
Caravaca is renown for its important May Fiestas, held in honour of the Vera Cruz, which also incorporate the Moors and Christians celebrations and the Running of the Wine Horses.
Caravaca de la Cruz is also the home of Europe´s largest collection of ethnic instruments at Barranda, the Museo de Música Étnica Barranda and is the location of the Barranda festival de Cuadrillas, which celebrates the Region's ethnic music traditions.
The municipality is home to around 26,000 inhabitants and sahres boundaries with Moratalla, Cehegín, Lorca, Puebla de Don Fadrique in the province of Granada and Vélez-Blanco in the province of Almería.
Opening times:
Weekdays: 10.00 to 14.00 and 16.30 to 19.30
Saturdays: 10.30 to 14.00 and 16.30 to 19.30
Sundays and public holidays: 10.30 to 14.00
Click for map, Caravaca de la Cruz Tourist Office