The sum was known: 24,242 spectators attended the concerts of Guitar Festival of Cordoba, the great cultural event of the city. The balance sheet of the City Council could only be good, because it has also increased a lot compared to the previous year, until 2023. Of course, are they enough? How have they been distributed?
The analysis of the figures, which was passed this Wednesday by the Board of Directors of the Municipal Institute of Performing artsshows that despite the numbers, the average attendance is far from massive. In fact, of the 26 indoor recitals, only half exceeded 50 percent of ability from their enclosures.
Grand Theatre
The most successful performances were recorded at the Gran Teatro, the city’s main hall, with an average attendance of 66.48 percent of spectators. According to figures from the Municipal Institute of Performing Arts, the only recital for which all 885 seats were sold was that of Sara Barasentitled “Vuela”, in homage to Paco de Lucie.
The dancer’s show represented an investment of 73,810 euros for the City Council of Córdoba, through two contracts. Flamenco was the most successful musical genre of this edition, since the concerts of Tomato in sextet format (83.50%), Carmen Linares (77.06%) and Jose Antonio Rodriguez and the Orchestra with the show ‘La mira de Romero de Torres,’ which reached 620 spectators and a percentage of 70.
In the case of Tomatito, the cash amount was 16,990 euros and in the case of the Cordovan musician, more than 42,800 euros were paid, of which 6,555 corresponded to the musical direction by Michael Tomas.
The Caléxico concert reached 78.42, after a cost of 36,300 euros, and the Lee Ritenour & Dave Grusin concert reached 507 spectators, or 57.29 percent of the capacity. Elliot Murphy called 500 people. At the Gran Teatro, only two of the nine concerts had an attendance lower than half of the total capacity, that of the Bill Frissel Trio, which reached 42.49 percent, and that of the Brazilian. Egberto Gismontiwhich reached 33 percent of the localities. The first of these recitals cost 26,620 euros, while the second cost 16,375 euros.
Axerquía Theater
In absolute terms, the largest number of spectators was concentrated at the Teatro de la Axerquía, since 15,546 people attended the eight concerts. Of course, only half managed to cover more than 50% of the capacity. It is a venue of large dimensionswhich reached up to 3,998 spectators, but these were also concerts that had to be massive. And for which the biggest was paid.
As announced by the City Hall after the Guitar Festival, the concert that brought together the most spectators of the event was that of Bathrobewhich sold out and attracted almost 4,000 spectators on the night of July 5. It was also the most expensive: the Extremadura musician’s stash amounted to 181,500 euros, which at least had some profitability.
There’s not much to say about Europe. The seasoned Swedish band charged €157,300 for a concert attended by 2,171 people, which was 55.19 percent of the open-air theater’s capacity. Another highly anticipated event was Rozalenewhich brought together 2,170 people, which represents 55 percent of the capacity of the outdoor venue. The cachet of the singer from La Mancha, one of the biggest successes of recent times in Spain, is more than 59,000 euros, a third of the Europe for an almost identical result in number of spectators.
What he charged was higher The Kankawhich amounted to 78,650 euros for a recital attended by 1,526 people, which represents 38.79 percent of the total capacity of the Teatro de la Axerquía.
Flamenco, with artists such as Sara Baras, Tomatito and José Antonio Rodríguez, was a genre with great attraction.
The recital of Julieta Venegas and Valeria Castro, with two independent and consecutive concerts, received 34.60 percent of the viewers, above that of the Andalusian. Maria Pelaewhich brought together 1,200 people, representing 30.50 percent of all seats.
The band concert gold and Eclipse, historic of “heavy metal”, was the least attended guitar festival, with just over 800 spectators, 20 percent of the total. The list of shows at the Teatro de la Axerquía is completed by the session on July 8, in which there was first a tribute to the late Cordovan musician Ángel Molina and later the concert of the band Symphonyspecializing in offering great pieces of classical music performed with electric guitars.
It was a free recital that could be attended by collecting an invitation. The average attendance at the open-air theatre was spectators of 49.30 percent among the eight shows offered.
Gongora Theatre
The audience at the Góngora Theatre was, as usual, much more discreet. It is here that the concerts most focused on classical guitar are offered, which are part of the heart of the festival, but which by their nature reach a much wider audience. reducedThe hall on Jesús y María Street has a capacity of 560 spectators and only two concerts have reached not only half, but above 40 percent.
one of them was Antonio Reywhich, under the title “Stories of a Flamenco”, attracted 449 people, which represents 80.18 percent of the venue’s capacity. The appeal of flamenco art among the public is also confirmed, since it also achieved good numbers at the Gran Teatro.
Trwua N-Tinir’s show also managed to exceed half of the one presented at Góngora, with 290 spectators. Now, no one reaches 200, not even the very established names at the Festival: Rafael Aguirre reaches 196 (35%) Ricardo Gallen He remained at 194 (34%), Anabel Mortesinos at 191 (34%) and the trio led by Juan Manuel Cañizares at 150 (26%).
The guitar and dance show of Valerian rags and Miguel Trápaga barely covered a quarter of the capacity, with 142 spectators. The least attended concerts of the Cordoba Guitar Festival among those held indoors were the Andalusian Guitar Quartet (121 spectators) and the one entitled “Alternative History Quartet”, which brought together 71 people. The average attendance at the Góngora Theater was 35.79 percent.
Free
The Guitar Festival program was completed with concerts in five other venues, always with free admission until capacity was reached. Almost all of them were at one hundred percent capacity and were the Meeting of Young Guitarists in the Baroque Courtyard of the Merced Palace (350 people), the recitals in the Potro Square (64), that of Ali Hattab at the Casa Arabe and those that took place in the courtyard of the Romero de Torres Museumwith 70 people. The Cordoba Orchestra with Avi Avital had a unique impact on the Orange Tree Courtyardin which 993 people participated.
In total, 1,597 people joined the participants in the other events of the Guitar Festival until reaching the figure of 24,242, which the City Council celebrated at the time as higher than that of 2023, but which also shows concerts at half speed on an appointment with 1.5 million budget.
