The Turia Gardens are a space of indisputable urban, social and heritage value that has evolved with the city since its very foundation. In spite of everything, the awareness that allows us to perceive it in this way is still, to a large extent, yet to be built. The narratives, often focused on the catastrophic floods, have overlooked other types of economic, social and emotional relationships between the city and its river.

The conversion of the river into a garden from 1982 onwards expanded the idea that, before the transformation of the old river into a large green belt, it was a wasteland that was alien to the city. A place where nothing happened.

The result of photographic and documentary archive research, this exhibition tells the story of a reality that was more diverse and complex. The exhibition is divided into three sections: Living on the river, which focuses on the riverbed as a living space; Living from the river, which points out the different uses of resources often related to water; Living the river, which reveals the development of its social and popular use until it became a garden thanks to citizen mobilisation.

Looking at the past shows us how our everyday environment is constantly changing, the result of the evolution of the relationships between people and the environment they inhabit. Observing these processes helps to strengthen the emotional roots that link us to the spaces we inhabit, enjoy and are used to perceiving as natural and familiar.

València was not born with its back to the sea, as is often said, but deliberately facing its river.

The Turia Gardens are a space of indisputable urban, social and heritage value that has evolved with the city since its very foundation. In spite of everything, the awareness that allows us to perceive it in this way is still, to a large extent, yet to be built. The narratives, often focused on the catastrophic floods, have overlooked other types of economic, social and emotional relationships between the city and its river.

The conversion of the river into a garden from 1982 onwards expanded the idea that, before the transformation of the old river into a large green belt, it was a wasteland that was alien to the city. A place where nothing happened.

The result of photographic and documentary archive research, this exhibition tells the story of a reality that was more diverse and complex. The exhibition is divided into three sections: Living on the river, which focuses on the riverbed as a living space; Living from the river, which points out the different uses of resources often related to water; Living the river, which reveals the development of its social and popular use until it became a garden thanks to citizen mobilisation.

Looking at the past shows us how our everyday environment is constantly changing, the result of the evolution of the relationships between people and the environment they inhabit. Observing these processes helps to strengthen the emotional roots that link us to the spaces we inhabit, enjoy and are used to perceiving as natural and familiar.

València was not born with its back to the sea, as is often said, but deliberately facing its river.

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In a human library, books are the people who transmit life stories and diverse tales that are never repeated. At L'ETNO Library we exchange paper books for human books that speak in the first person. In a human library you come to listen, to feel and to learn in a supportive and intercultural space because the books will be migrants from different countries who are willing to share their experiences with those who want to listen to them. All the human books are part of the València Acoge collective. 

L'ETNO Library is looking for readers interested in listening and living this experience. The recommended age is for people over 12 years old because the books are not fiction but contain very real stories and, as we all know, reality always surpasses fiction. However, if you have children over 12 at home, don't hesitate to take them with you because it is an enriching experience to activate and open the heart and mind. 
 
The books will change in each session, so you can attend both sessions without repeating readings. And a recommendation: plan your Saturday well and come without rushing, without thinking about shopping before lunch, without thinking about anything other than enjoying a good read.

Naiet Cirerer is a blind romancero who pays homage to those blind people who used to go around villages telling and singing about what was going on, in a festive way, sometimes in the style of Bernat i Baldoví, and even speaking in broken Valencian or Spanish, provoking laughter and amusement among the people who listened to his romances, habaneras, peteneras, valencianas, malagueñas, etc. It was a way of reliving with good music and good lyrics those cool evenings that our ancestors were so grateful for. A show that leaves no one indifferent.  

Naiet Cirerer (vocals, turuta, flabiol and dulzaina), Pep Juste Mama (vocals and guitar), Eduard Navarro (bandurria, lute and dulzaina).

Urbàlia Rurana have been cultivating their particular style of traditional Valencian music for more than three decades, faithful to their founding idea of bringing this music closer to the influences of other countries on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Since 1990, they have performed on stages and at festivals all over the Iberian Peninsula and in many European countries, and have released seven albums, which have received awards and critical and public acclaim. The group, which has become one of the fundamental groups of Valencian folk music, has actively participated in the promotion and creation of roots music festivals (Cant al Ras de Massalfassar, Festacarrer de Ondara and Xàbia Folk, among others).

The group has collaborated with other prestigious groups and artists in shows and record productions: with the Catalan group Primera Nota (Folk nou, 1997), with the Piedmontese musician Maurizio Martinotti (Cante delle terre del riso, 2000; Territoris amables, 2002) and with the Valencian band La Romàntica del Saladar (La vespra i la festa). At present, he presents diverse repertoires in concert format (Sarau mediterrani and La vespra i la festa), dance (Sarau a la plaça) and even Christmas repertoire (Cançons de Nadal valencianes), as well as his anthological concert Urbàlia Rurana 30 anys de camí, a selection of songs from all his 7 recordings and other proposals for the future.

Jaume Gosàlbez (dulzaina, tarota, flute and vocals), Carles Gil (accordion, mandolins and vocals), Toni Torregrossa (guitar, guitarrón and vocals), Joan Buigues (tuba and vocals) and Bernat Pellisser (drums, percussion and vocals).

Krama, a band led by the Greek guitarist Spyros Kaniaris, explores modes and rhythms from the Balkans, Greece and the Black Sea, and creates a common ground where Mediterranean sonorities and songs intervene with convoluted rhythms and games with open and tense harmonies, in an approach that combines crisp sound universes with others full of serenity.

In this concert they will present works from their 15-year career and new compositions. In their music, traditional Greek instruments such as the lyre, the bouzouki, the sarangi coexist with eight-string guitars or the double bass, accompanied by percussion instruments (cajon, udu, tambourines). The lyrics of the songs are original in Valencian and by poets such as Vicent Andrés Estelles, Isabel Garcia Canet or translations into Valencian of the Greek poets Kostas Karyotakis and Odiseas Elytis.

Krama has participated in festivals such as Fira Mediterrània de Manresa, Polirítmia (València) ETNOMÚSIC (Valencia), Folk Segovia, Festival Internacional de Música de Gandia, Indrets Sonors, Espai Mediterrani, Fira de Vic, and have performed in Malta, Hungary, Germany, Egypt, and Algeria. They have received the Premi Ovidi Montllor 2010 and the Premi Mediterrània 2008 of the Fira d'Espectacles d'Arrel Tradicional Mediterrània de Manresa. 

Spyros Kaniaris (guitar, lyra de Pontos, sarangui), David Gadea (percussion), Rafel Arnal (vocals), Xuso Barberá (double bass).

Considered by critics as "the voice of the new generation of cante jondo", Rocío Márquez has spent more than a decade building a solid artistic career that today overflows the flamenco scene, where she is already a clear reference and consolidated figure. 

Her restless personality and enormous curiosity are evident in her discography, which across the board shows us both her great love for the flamenco tradition and her imperious need to expand the limits of that same tradition, exploring and experimenting with melodies, instrumentation, arrangements and lyrics. His work has been presented at the most renowned festivals on the flamenco circuit and at indie and pop/rock events such as Primavera Sound or Monkey Week, or venues such as the Matadero in Madrid or the CCCB in Barcelona. 

At ETNOMÚSIC she presents her project Tercer cielo, where Rocío Márquez has found as a partner Bronquio, a young musician from Jerez with a punk tradition and a figure on the Spanish electronic scene. Both create a mental and creative space-time framework in which the voice, the bodies, the breath, the machine, the magnetic field are linked by the umbilical cord of flamenco, with a clear voice and babbling in sound textures, modelling, electronic music resources and a lot of poetry, like that of García Lorca. 

Rocío Márquez (voices and bodies), Bronquio (programming and synthesizer).

Given the characteristics of the concert (dance music) the seating capacity will be much smaller than usual, i.e. the audience will be standing.

"Like someone who has been away from home for a long time and now returns with the curious gaze of a visitor, Maestro Espada immerses us in the musical tradition of his native Murcia to give birth to an exciting musical project in which analogue synthesizers combine with castanets and lutes, and prove that electronics can also be folklore". 

With these words, the brothers Alejandro and Víctor Hernández present us with this singular project in which two voices that have been sounding together all their lives come together and open up a way to approach folklore not as a relic but as a source of inspiration, a new material made up of seeds and roots that improve musical biodiversity.

Their songs are sung and hummed like the Arabic verses that have been sung for centuries in the orchards of Murcia. Their lyrics surf traditional notes and structure, which merge with more experimental noises and sounds, in a rediscovery of traditional folklore, without limitations or preconceived ideas. Creating something new, trying not to let what is known condition the form. 

Alejandro Hernández (vocals, synthesizer and castanets), Víctor Hernández (vocals and castanets).

Antonio Castrignanò, a native of Galatina (Puglia, Italy) defines himself as an author, composer and musician. He approached the folk music of Salento in its early days and, instead of mimicking this phenomenon that was growing around him, he marked a turning point in the exaggerated "pizzica" fever unleashed by the ancestral dance so called that attracted tourists and all kinds of audiences, and chose to experiment with the contemporary in a very personal style. 

After more than a decade of work as a musician in Italy and internationally, in 2010 he released his first solo album (Mara la fatia), a collection of evocative songs, a fusion of tradition and innovation that is a manifesto of the author's musical poetics. 

In 2014 he released his second solo album (Fomenta), in which his great attraction for both Salento tradition and contemporary music form a perfect and extremely balanced blend. This tendency, typical of Castrignanò's style, is also present in the subsequent EP, also produced by Ponderosa, Aria Caddhipulina.

Antonio Castrignanò has collaborated with artists such as Stewart Copeland, Ludovico Einaudi and Ballakè Sissoko and has created soundtracks for film projects. He performs on the stages of prestigious national and international festivals and has become an important reference for the rediscovery of the traditional music of Salento from a contemporary perspective. 

Antonio Castrignanò (voice and tambourine), Rocco Nigro (accordion), Giuseppe Spedicato (bass and mandola), Gianni Gelao (bagpipe and bouzouki), Luigi Marra (violin), Maurizio Pelizzari (guitar and mandolin). 

 
Header photo: Salvatore Coluccia

Efrén López has a long musical career and has played in groups such as L'Ham de Foc, Aman Aman, Sabir, Evo, Trio Petrakis-López-Chemirani, etc. In the year of ETNOMUSIC's 20th anniversary, the multi-instrumentalist and composer comes together in this unique encounter with some of the best performers and composers with whom he has collaborated most closely in recent years, all of them leading names in their respective musical traditions (Greek, Persian, Breton or Castilian). A cosmopolitan ensemble of musicians who draw the musical geographies to which Efrén López has travelled, studied and from which he has drawn inspiration to create his own themes. 

The group is made up of the singer and multi-instrumentalist Isabel Martín ─ member of the Toledan duo Milo ke Mandarini─, the Cretan virtuoso musician and luthier Stelios Petrakis, the Greek kanun player Sofia Labropoulou, the Iranian-French percussionist Keyvan Chemirani, the great Breton flautist Sylvain Barou and the double bass player Alejandro Royo from Castellón come together to give life to their original pieces from the last decade, in a framework of close complicity and communication, through virtuosity and improvisation, making use of a colourful instrumental and interpretative range always at the service of the music.

Efrén López (ud, rabab, hurdy-gurdy, oğur saz, laouto, cistro, voice and direction), Isabel Martín (voice, bendir, tambourine and tambourine), Stelios Petrakis (lyra and lavta), Sofia Labropoulou (kanun), Keyvan Chemirani (zarb and daf), Sylvain Barou (flute, bansuri, duduk, uilleann pipes, zurna and dilli kaval), Alejandro Royo (double bass).

Headline photo: @Laura Soriano