Hybrid Sounds at First Music Market in Aragon

Fraga, Huesca, Spain – The first Music Market in Aragon will begin Tuesday, May 17. The Market is
designed with a view to the current situation of the music industry and will not focus exclusively on providing information, but rather on offering a venue for meetings and discussion. The Market’s objective is to support the Aragonese music industry. It will also be open to the external market, particularly those working in the surrounding regions (i.e. in Northeast Spain) and countries
nearby, without forgetting established networks in the sector and without relinquishing wider objectives.

The Market is aimed at Aragonese, Spanish and international music buyers, at critics and experts from the media, at artists, managers and agents and at the supplementary industries involved in live music. So far 89% of the registered participants come from Spain and 11% from abroad, primarily France and Belgium.

The new sounds of Aragon include combinations such as Arab-Andalusian jazz, Aragonese folk and rock, Latin-rooted reggae, rap and raggamuffin, flamenco and a myriad of world sounds.

The Market will preset live performances at Pabellón El Sotet and Discoteca Florida de Fraga, open to the public. Concerts held at 6 and 7 p.m. will be free. Artist featured include regional acts such as Joaquín Pardinilla, A Cadiera Coixa, Los Cármenes, B Vocal, María José Hernández o Pascual Gallo y
Gitanos de Aragón. There will also be artist from outside Aragon: Marilis Orionaa (France) and Gisela Baum (Argentina).

At Discoteca Florida there will be 4 acts per night, May 17, 18 and 19. The ticket price will be 10 €. Concerts begin at 10 p.m. The artists scheduled are:

Tuesday, May 17

Biella Nuei
Comando Cucaracha
Jah’sta
Zaragoza Acción Sonora

Tuesday, May 18

Bajo Ebro
Beñat Achiary (France)
Miquel Gil (Valencia, Spain)
Azzdine (Morocco)

Thursday, May 19

Cristóbal Repetto (Argentina)
Big City (Aragon, Spain)
Banco de Gaia (UK)
Laibach (Slovenia) .

The following weekend (May 20 and 21) the Festival En la Línea continues at Pabellón El Sotet with performances by Disasters, Mahala Raï Banda (Romania), Pereza (Madrid), Aragonese mestizo music sensation Carmen París, Tachenko, Cheikha Rimitti (Algeria) and Chambao (Andalusia, Spain).

Establishing a permanent marketplace for music in Aragon is a longstanding goal, repeatedly called for by music professionals in Aragon. This need prompted the Huesca Provincial Council to create the Music Market in Aragon, within the framework of a large-scale music festival: Festival En la Línea.

Festival En la Línea started May 13 and will run until May 21. The event is produced by the Huesca Provincial Council in co-operation with the Fraga Town Council and The Aragonese Regional Government.

Fraga is located at Longitude 0º, on the border between Aragon and Catalonia. It has always been a crossroads, a meeting place for people and cultures. It is an interesting melting pot, both for its inhabitants and those who arrive in this lively and open-spirited town.

Festival En la Línea is a multifaceted festival with its own distinctive character, although the common theme running through it is the music of creative frontiers, of crossbred cultures, of impure and bastard creators and of Fraga’s many languages (Spanish, Catalan, Arabic, Latin). Music forms the center of the festival, around which there are also be exhibitions, debates/meetings, events
for music professionals, cinema and a marketplace for professionals in the music industry, a replacement for the much-missed Music Trade Fair in Aragon, albeit with a more contemporary outlook.