One of the essential summer events in our land, the Veruela Summer Festival, which takes place in the Monastery of Veruela (5 minutes from Bulbuente Castle), This year with Rayden, Valeria Castro, Israel Fernandez and Alice Wonder. The concerts will take place every Saturday from July 29 to August 19 with the intimate format that characterizes this great musical event. Tickets can be purchased at the Ibercaja network at 9 euros.
The festival, which is organized by the Diputación de Zaragoza and this year reaches its XXVIII edition with concerts that are still out of the most commercial line in a space as emblematic and intimate as the church of the monastery of Veruela.
The performances will take place every Saturday from July 29 to August 19 and tickets can already be purchased at the Ibercaja network at a price of 9 euros. The concerts, with a capacity of 450 people, will begin at 19.30 and the doors will open half an hour before.
The line-up features acclaimed artists who say goodbye to the stage and bring their last tour to Moncayo, as in the case of Rayden (August 5)a multidisciplinary artist who has stood out throughout his musical career for his ability to fuse musical genres; to a flamenco figure such as Israel Fernandez accompanied on the guitar by Yerai Cortés (August 12)The following artists will bring their innovative proposals to an area where this musical style has many followers; and emerging artists with voices and acoustic proposals that will embellish the heritage of the monastery, such as Alice Wonder (July 29)who will bring to the attendees his alternative and alternative music. Valeria Castro (August 19)The band will offer a concert with folkloric influences and Canarian roots.
“This edition maintains the line of programming with which the festival became known more than 25 years ago, leaving the most commercial line of music circuits, looking for quality, diversity and artistic originality to return to the root of the festival,” said the deputy delegate of Culture of the Diputación de Zaragoza, Ros Cihuelo. Veruela Verano offers a concert format that seeks the comfort and enjoyment of the wonderful space of the church of the Monastery, betting on a unique musical experience in the Moncayo.
The Veruela Verano festival energizes every year the cultural life of the lands of Moncayo. Throughout all these years, top artists have been part of the festival program, such as Rosalía & Refree, Maika Makovski, Noa, Wim Wertens, Martirio, Carmen París, Julieta Venegas, Carlos Núñez, Ray Lema, Juan Perro, Joan Manuel Serrat, José Mercé…
July 29th: Alice Wonder
After a sold out show at the legendary Riviera, Alice Wonder starts a year that promises to consecrate her in the national music scene and will offer an acoustic solo concert in Veruela. She is at the head of a new emerging scene with a large young audience free of prejudices. That is why the artist from Madrid has fallen like a ray of light with her participation in the Benidorm Fest, where she presents her single “Yo quisiera”, with more than 500K streams on platforms in less than 3 weeks.
During this year the artist is living the closing of her tour “Que se joda todo lo demás” and the beginning of a new stage, releasing live songs that will be part of her next releases. Alice has spent more than a year hanging the “sold out” sign in all the cities where she performs, and this is evident in the expectation that her project continues to generate.
With her debut EP “Take off” she already accumulated several million plays on the single of the same name. Then came “Firekid”, her first album, in which the musical precocity of the artist shone more than ever in the 10 songs in English and the first in Spanish, “Bajo la piel”, which has already become an absolute anthem among her followers. With her second album, “Que Se Joda Todo Lo Demás”, the first one entirely in Spanish, she has already accumulated almost 30 million plays on platforms, demonstrating the enormous capacity she has to connect emotionally with the public.
August 5: Rayden
Labels do not go with Rayden, who comes to the Monasterio de Veruela accompanied by his band in acoustic as part of the farewell tour “Quiero que nos volvamos a ver por última vez”, as he announces his definitive abandonment of music after 23 years of career to devote himself to the novel.
Thus, this multidisciplinary artist has stood out throughout his musical career for his ability to merge musical genres, his originality, and the lyrical touch of his lyrics, always defined by his genre of origin: rap. He has collaborated with artists such as Pablo López, Leiva, Rozalén, Sidecars, Iván Ferreiro, Andrés Suárez, Bely Basarte, Tanxugueiras, etc. Discovering himself as one of the artists who has built more bridges between styles at the national level.
His solo discography consists of 6 albums, “Estaba escrito”, “Mosaico” “En alma y hueso”, “Antónimo”, “Sinónimo” and “Homónimo”, an album with which he closes his second trilogy, but at the same time closes a hexalogy that has tried to go from the inside out, from the continent to the content and with which he has tried to put in value the word as a unifying force of a whole, in a unique and difficult to pigeonhole way.
The artist’s long musical career has been awarded on numerous occasions. He was nominated for best Spanish artist at the MTV EMAs and best artist at the Premios 40. At the MIN Awards he received the award for best artist and best video clip for Matemática de la carne. The artist also stands out in his facet as a writer.
He is the author of 4 bestselling books: “Herido Diario”, “TErminAMOs y otros poemas sin terminar”, “El mundo es un gato jugando con Australia” and “Cantinela”. His solidarity and social work, having collaborated with organizations such as the United Nations or being a Google ambassador to try to eradicate hate speech, are also facets to highlight of the artist.
August 12: Israel Fernández and Yerai Cortés
In Israel and Yerai coexist two worlds, the ancient and the contemporary. One has managed to rejuvenate the singing of yesteryear to give it new elements and make it reach the current fans and the other passionate about music and creativity, is considered a compulsive musician who does not understand another way of living if not by and for art.
In the young cantaor from Toledo there is a special circumstance, and that is that his voice is impregnated with a very wide spectrum of characteristics where the tear, the pinch and the gypsy coexist with the speed, the sweetness and the musicality. Israel represents the present of flamenco and is called to make history in this art. Despite his youth, he has become a point of reference for flamenco fans and for his own peers.
Among his qualities, his enormous personality, perfect intonation, a devilish mastery of rhythm and an unbridled enthusiasm for an art that represents his way of life stand out.
In the case of Yerai, one of the most recognized flamenco guitarists of the moment, winner of the “Guitarra con Alma” Award at the Festival de Jerez, he is at the top of the musical scene as the guitarist on the tour of C. Tangana “Sin cantar ni afinar tour”.
August 19: Valeria Castro
Valeria Castro’s concert will be a unique opportunity to discover one of the most important national artists of the coming years. Owner of a sensitive, fragile voice, conducive to the shiver, she belongs to that new generation familiar with the terminology of trap, tanganas, reggaeton or perreo, but her voice, in stark contrast, rises wise, rooted and ancient, as if it came from an older woman with a soul lacerated by the sorrows of life.
“I’m not as, as vulnerable as my songs, but I come very close as a person to that same vulnerability. Otherwise I couldn’t be a singer: I would feel like an actress. And I need my identity and my life to match what I then reflect through music.”
With four years he began studying at the Escuela Insular de Música de La Palma, one day in 2017 he saw how his networks went crazy after Alejandro Sanz had shared on Twitter one of his videos of versions that he used to hang. From there begins a path that leads to his first EP, titled “Chiquita”, which has catapulted him to be in the eyes of critics and the industry as one of the great promises of the Hispanic song.
Sensitive lyrics full of memory and honesty, and a very careful aesthetics in each video, accompany a sound impregnated with the musical heritage that weaves ties with the folk music of the Canary Islands.