Madrid is a land of festivals. Although years ago that phrase sounded like a laugh, the tables have turned and now the region is home to numerous musical macro-events of reference not only nationally, but also internationally. In line with this trend, the Community of Madrid has been increasing its sponsorships to promote a sector that still has enormous growth potential.
The Governing Council of the Community of Madrid approved last Thursday 18 the sponsorship of the Mad Cool Festival 2022 with 1,089,000 euros, a support linked to the potential tourist attraction of this musical event that, in its last edition, held in 2019, generated an impact of 53 million euros in the regional economy.
The regional government is carrying out this action in order to continue advancing in the recovery of international tourism after the pandemic. Thus, in the previous Mad Cool Festival, a total of 186,128 people met, 30% of foreign origin. This cultural event, which could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to the epidemiological situation, returns this year from July 6 to 10.
Recognized as the musical event with the best poster by New Musical Express, a leading British magazine, Mad Cool will feature more than 140 performances by world-renowned artists, including Metallica, Twenty One Pilots, Placebo, Imagine Dragons, The Killers, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, Faith No More, Kings of Leon, Florence The Machine, Pixies, Nathy Peluso and Natos y Waor. For the Madrid Executive, this event, of which four editions have been held to date in which it has also participated as a sponsor, consolidates the position of the Community within the international music festival circuit.
In addition, the region will be promoted at the meeting as a tourist destination, since it will have an information point on the Madrid destination and its image will be visible in all advertising media and communication actions, with an intense digital campaign. Also, one of the scenarios will be called Community of Madrid and in the Mad Cool Ferris wheel there will be a booth reserved to show the most interesting places of tourist interest that can be seen from that point. Mad Cool’s positioning as an international benchmark is evidenced by its presence among the 712 accredited journalists from 29 countries, 67% more than in the previous edition.
“Sponsorships and institutional aid are vital for the development and growth of this profile of magnitude events,” says Javier Arnaiz, director of Mad Cool. «Without public-private collaboration, the viability of the projects would be impossible. We are very grateful for the institutional support to continue positioning Madrid as a world reference city. The economic, social and cultural return of the project endorses this aid to continue growing hand in hand”.
Arnaiz is convinced that the 2022 edition of Mad Cool “will be very special” because citizens want to “live life after two consecutive years of the pandemic”, and reveals that “sales are skyrocketing and the few tickets will soon be sold out that are left.” On the other hand, on a strictly artistic level, the director of Mad Cool believes that “all the bands and artists are excited about this return to the stage” since “just like the citizens, they have been two years without being able to lead a normal life and this It hasn’t been easy for them, so they will come out with more desire than ever to give everything.” “I’m sure we’ll see great shows on the seven Mad Cool stages.”
In addition to the sponsorship of Mad Cool, which the Governing Council has just approved, the Community has turned to make this region a reference for music, with the programming and support of a good number of festivals in its territory. Since last May 1, and throughout spring, summer and autumn, the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports have scheduled different festivals throughout much of Madrid’s geography.
The Vermúse Session Festival was conceived in the midst of a pandemic to support the music sector in a time of difficulty and, above all, indie groups that were just starting out. With this year’s event and until May 29, this event is now in its third edition. The programming of this festival includes 83 free concerts by 42 bands in 18 municipalities in the region, and aims to support musical talent and promote local cultural tourism. Vermú Session still has to pass through Alcalá de Henares, Aranjuez, Buitrago de Lozoya, Bustarviejo, Chapineria, Chinchón, Colmenar de Oreja, Navalcarnero, Nuevo Baztan, Pelayo de la Presa, Rascafría, San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Torrelaguna and Villarejo de Salvanese.
The Community will also support the Tomavistas Festival on May 19, 20 and 21, at the Ifema fairgrounds, and in September the Brilliant Festival, in Chapineria, both of indie music and which bring together great references from the music scene current (Amaia, Alizzz, Rigoberta Bandini, Suede…).
The El Águila Complex, which occupies the old brewery that today houses the Regional Archive and the Regional Library, celebrates Águila Suena from June 21 to 26. This is the second edition of a festival that is closing a bill that will bring together emerging bands from the Madrid scene with consolidated bands linked to and influenced by the music of the 60s.
In July, the Community of Madrid organizes another year of Clásicos en Verano, as part of the Escenas de Verano festival, a cycle of classical music in municipalities with less than 2,500 inhabitants under the direction of Pepe Mompeán.
From September 10 to 30, the Community of Madrid has scheduled the ‘Trap360
The August program of the El Escorial International Summer Festival is also closing, with music and theater, in the San Lorenzo Auditorium, in the San Lorenzo Royal Coliseum and in urban spaces in both San Lorenzo and El Escorial. For their part, in October, Suma Flamenca and in December Miradas flamencas will expand the musical offer of the Community with two festivals focused on cante jondo.
One of the priorities of the Government of the Community of Madrid is to ensure that 2022 becomes the year of the recovery of tourism. The latest official data from the sector, the Hotel Occupancy Survey, made public a few weeks ago, indicated that up to March 80% of national and international tourism had recovered (90% national and 60% international), tourists who continue to feel attracted by the cultural proposals that the region offers and that has one of its great attractions in the musical proposal. It is evident that the programming of the cultural agenda and, specifically, of music festivals attracts the public and therefore tourists from all latitudes.
The Community of Madrid, through the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sports, closed last February the landing in Madrid in June 2023 of Primavera Sound, an international reference festival and, until now, with only headquarters in Barcelona . With this strategic move, the Community of Madrid wants to consecrate itself as one of the great musical capitals of Europe, expanding its cultural offer and building cultural bridges with Barcelona, another of the lines marked out in the department headed by Marta Rivera de la Cruz.
As the counselor explains: “It is about working to strengthen the culture of our country, a tourist reference in the world, and becoming more and more a more powerful destination from the cultural and lifestyle point of view.” In her opinion, “Madrid is fashionable because we have been able to send a message of optimism, of a job well done, of openness to the rest of Spain…. People want to come to Madrid to have a good time, to get to know our cultural agenda, which is not only concentrated in the capital and, in short, to enjoy life».
