In 2020 I managed to get to the wonderful flamenco Festival de Jerez, two weeks before Spain locked down for the first time in the pandemic. Before vaccines, before masks, before all the mayhem and death. The UK locked down about three weeks later. In 2021 it was a low key, local affair, rescheduled to May and I missed it – the first time for over a decade – because travel was still difficult. Now Festival 2022 is up and running and I’m going.
There is so much to look forward to. There’s a new venue, the Palacio de Atalaya, which houses the poetically named Museum of Time. That’s a museum you really want to be in at midday when the massive clock collection (and there are some truly exquisite timepieces) chimes twelve. We’re seeing the fabulous Olga Pericet, a dancer who I have wanted to see for years but who we’ve always managed to miss,
before heading off for gourmet tapas. Then to the Sala Compania, a 16th century church converted into a performance space, in the evening for Angel Rojas Dance Project, the Madrileno’s latest show. Sunday and it must be Miguel Linan, an old favourite, in the Teatro Villamarta with his latest show Pie de Hierro. Another of our favourites, Jerezano singer David Carpio, is appearing with Linan as an invited guest. I booked tickets in November, shortly after they were put on sale and the only ones available were up in the gods, which is where we are, but at least we got some. Linan is becoming a 
superstar of the Festival and of flamenco in general and he regularly collaborates with Carpio, good news for both. Then on Monday to the Sala Compania again for a more intimate performance and the Malagan guitarist Daniel Casares. It’s with the guitar that we begin, in the same venue on Wednesday with Salvador Gutierrez.
There’ll be more besides; meeting up with old friends, convivial food and drink (given daytime temperatures of 22 degrees quite a lot of this might be done outside in the blossoming tree-lined squares of the old town). No Carnaval this year, either in Jerez or its more famous Carnaval cousin, Cadiz, as both events have been moved to June, mainly because of COVID. These are street events, drawing huge crowds so it
makes sense to hold them when it’s hotter and the virus less pervasive, though it will be a strange experience, especially in Cadiz, where the Carnaval has been held in February for as long as I can remember. But that’s something else to look forward to later in the year.
The Festival has already begun and friends there tell me that the city is still relatively quiet. Usually the whole place resounds with music and crowds of flamenco lovers from around the world fill the bars and restaurants day and night (and the performance venues). This year might be a little different and maybe restaurant tables will be easier to come by. Every cloud…
I’ll be posting pics in my Insta account. For more on the Festival de Jerez go to The Story Bazaar website and use the Tag Festival de Jerez.
Julie Anderson 