Guieldu at the Ciares Romería

Gijón

Another brilliant night at Ciares' traditional folixa, celebrating the music of Asturies.

When we were invit­ed to play at the Cia­res Romería, we had a feel­ing this would be some­thing spe­cial. The fes­ti­val may still have been in its infan­cy, cel­e­brat­ing only its fifth edi­tion, but it already felt like it had been part of Xixón’s sum­mer cal­en­dar for years.

Maybe that’s because the peo­ple behind Esto ye Cia­res have brought back a way of organ­is­ing com­mu­ni­ty fes­ti­vals that many thought had dis­ap­peared. These days, it’s com­mon for local fes­ti­vals to out­source much of the work, but Cia­res feels com­plete­ly dif­fer­ent. From the bar and the stage set­up to the organ­i­sa­tion itself, every­thing is dri­ven by vol­un­teers — dozens of peo­ple giv­ing up their time to make the Romería happen.

You can see it in the lit­tle details. The local foot­ball club, Unión Club de Cear­es, lends its ground for the fes­ti­val, while the stage is set up beside the club­house ter­race, where the bar serves through­out the day. It has the unmis­tak­able feel of the sim­ple, no-frills stages that were once at the heart of vil­lage fes­ti­vals across Asturies.
For a large band like Guiel­du, fit­ting every­one onto the stage took a bit of cre­ative jug­gling. But once the music start­ed, it became clear that this stage is part of what makes the Romería so spe­cial. It sim­ply would­n’t feel the same any­where else.

Of course, a fes­ti­val built this way has its own rhythm. As the day went on, the sched­ule shift­ed here and there. It would be easy to com­plain, but it would­n’t be fair. When the same vol­un­teers are build­ing the site, run­ning the bar, look­ing after the bands, deal­ing with the unex­pect­ed and some­how keep­ing every­thing on track, it’s only nat­ur­al that the timetable does­n’t always run to the minute.
What real­ly mat­ters is under­stand­ing why, and appre­ci­at­ing the incred­i­ble effort that makes an event like this possible.

As for the wel­come we received, we could­n’t have asked for more. From the moment we arrived, every­one made us feel at home. We even had a dress­ing room set aside for the band — some­thing that’s not always guar­an­teed, even at much big­ger fes­ti­vals. After the con­cert, we came back to find refresh­ments wait­ing for us, enough for the whole band.

They might seem like small touch­es, but they say a lot about the care and thought that the organ­is­ers put into the event. Look­ing after musi­cians isn’t just about hav­ing a big­ger bud­get; it’s about mak­ing peo­ple feel gen­uine­ly welcome.

As for the con­cert itself, the crowd could­n’t have been bet­ter. What we enjoyed most was see­ing how, even in the mid­dle of such a live­ly, folixeru atmos­phere, peo­ple lis­tened just as atten­tive­ly to the more reflec­tive songs as they did to the upbeat tunes that soon had every­one dancing.

That con­nec­tion with the audi­ence made it a real plea­sure to be on stage.

After the con­cert, it was a plea­sure to catch up with so many friends who have been fol­low­ing Guiel­du for years. Just as reward­ing, though, were the peo­ple who came over to say hel­lo and told us it was their first time hear­ing the band.

There’s always some­thing spe­cial about dis­cov­er­ing that your music is reach­ing new audiences.

Our con­grat­u­la­tions go to every­one involved. Not only for the tremen­dous amount of work that hap­pens behind the scenes, but for prov­ing that there’s anoth­er way to build a festival—one that can thrive and endure when it’s dri­ven by enthu­si­asm, coöper­a­tion and a gen­uine com­mu­ni­ty spirit.

We hope the Cia­res Romería con­tin­ues to grow for many years to come with­out ever los­ing the char­ac­ter that makes it so unique. As for us, we head­ed home with won­der­ful mem­o­ries and the feel­ing that we’d been part of some­thing far big­ger than just anoth­er concert.

Tra­di­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty fes­ti­vals are prob­a­bly the best place to keep the music of Asturies alive. They’re where old songs meet peo­ple who have known them all their lives, as well as those hear­ing them for the very first time. It’s where tra­di­tion stops being some­thing peo­ple sim­ply watch on a stage, or remem­ber from old­er gen­er­a­tions, and becomes some­thing they can take part in and make their own.

If music in Asturi­an is to have a future, it needs to keep ring­ing out in vil­lage squares, neigh­bour­hoods and romerías across Asturies. The Cia­res Romería shows that not only is this pos­si­ble, but that it mat­ters now more than ever

Here’s a short video and a few pho­tos from the day.

Concert Highlights: Video & Photos

© Pho­tos: Nacho G.S.