Guillermo Laporta, on the left, with a string trio, performs “Afilador” by Andrea Casarrubios in a panera in Leiguarda. | PHOTOGRAPH PROVIDED BY FESTIVAL ADAR
The festival, headquartered in Leiguarda and running from August 4 to 17, launches a competition to reward the most distinctive and best-preserved paneras
Article written by Chus Neira, La Nueva España, May 20, 2025, Oviedo
https://www.lne.es/occidente/2025/05/20/festival-adar-busca-mejores-horreos-117581643.html
Between New York and Belmonte de Miranda, the two poles around which Guillermo Laporta and Josefina Urraca move, the ADAR festival for the development of the arts in rural areas, conceived by these two musicians, discovered in the need to find places where music could be performed for small audiences the opportunity to inhabit traditional small-scale venues. “It is difficult to find theatres in rural areas,” Laporta admits. For this reason they have tested new formats each year: sound landscapes where the audience walks through a garden encountering small concerts, a recital in a greenhouse, or extremely limited-capacity sessions inside hórreos and paneras. This last format, where limited seating was solved by repeating performances, allowed them last year to confirm that these structures, with carefully chosen chamber repertoire, can become “wonderful” experiences. Convinced of that potential, the festival now launches a competition to award three hórreos and paneras and incorporate them into its concert circuit.
Between New York and Belmonte de Miranda, the two poles around which Guillermo Laporta and Josefina Urraca move, the ADAR festival for the development of the arts in rural areas, conceived by these two musicians, discovered in the need to find places where music could be performed for small audiences the opportunity to inhabit traditional small-scale venues. “It is difficult to find theatres in rural areas,” Laporta admits. For this reason they have tested new formats each year: sound landscapes where the audience walks through a garden encountering small concerts, a recital in a greenhouse, or extremely limited-capacity sessions inside hórreos and paneras. This last format, where limited seating was solved by repeating performances, allowed them last year to confirm that these structures, with carefully chosen chamber repertoire, can become “wonderful” experiences. Convinced of that potential, the festival now launches a competition to award three hórreos and paneras and incorporate them into its concert circuit.
The potential of paneras as chamber music venues was discovered last year in Leiguarda, where the festival has its main headquarters. Ten to fifteen people would enter the structure, listen to “Afilador” by festival resident cellist Andrea Casarrubios, a work for flute and string trio, and then another group would enter for the next performance while the first group continued walking through the village, discovering more music and enjoying the local gastronomy. Classical music and cider. A successful combination.
The competition they have now launched simplifies the requirements to encourage maximum participation, aware of the realities of rural areas. Owners of hórreos and paneras who wish to participate only need to send an email (leiguardamusic@gmail.com) or a message to 663 604 030 with several photographs of the structure (overall view, surroundings, and details), the exact location (address or coordinates), and a brief description or personal comment about the space and its history.
The call will remain open until June 30. Festival ADAR will inspect the spaces that reach the final stage and will select three, considering conservation status, current use, location, and artistic potential. The highest scoring will also receive a €500 prize, but the main idea is that these three spaces become part of the festival and host chamber concerts or artistic installations, as already done in previous editions. Ultimately, as Guillermo Laporta summarizes, “it is a way to meet owners interested in doing things while recognizing the value of Asturian heritage.”
Festival ADAR will return to Asturias from August 4 to 17 in its fifth edition with the intention of expanding across more territory and increasing activity. After beginning in Leiguarda, they have incorporated venues in Llanes and Grado and added other activities such as visual artists’ interventions. The list of municipalities is not yet closed, but Laporta hopes to include unexpected new locations to achieve “a connection between space and art” and create “experiences that are not about arriving, sitting, and listening, but about establishing a dialogue with the environment.”