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WHAT IS ME VUELVES LORCA?

Me Vuelves Lorca is a performing arts festival that takes place in Laroles (Nevada), a village of around 600 inhabitants in the heart of the stunning Alpujarra mountains near Granada, in southern Spain. It takes place every summer in a beautiful, handcrafted stone amphitheatre that was built by the local community in 2013. Plays begin as the sun sets and continue under the stars.

The Festival takes its inspiration from the figure of Granada poet and playwright, Federico García Lorca, and his passion for taking the theatre to the rural areas of Spain. It’s name is a quirky play on words that mixes the Spanish phrase “me vuelves loca” (“you drive me crazy”) with the name of the poet and it’s guaranteed to make native Spanish speakers smile.

It forms a part of the award-winning social development project, Un teatro entre todos, that aims to bring a little cultural and economic sparkle to this hidden corner of Spain.

Me Vuelves Lorca is defined by the excellence of its programme and the beauty of its surroundings. It offers visitors a one-of-a-kind theatrical experience and the opportunity to explore an undiscovered corner of southern Spain largely untouched by tourism.

Me vuelves Lorca… in 1 minute

Why a festival?

Through the Festival we aim to revitalise a little known part of the Alpujarra mountains near Granada in the south of Spain through culture and sustainable tourism.

BUILDING THE THEATRE

Así estaba...

Our story begins with an ancient cobbled corn-threshing circle in a state of considerable disrepair. … Transforming it into an amphitheatre seemed a novel way of breathing new life into an important part of local history.

Verano 2013

The threshing circle was restored, thanks to a grant from the regional government of Andalucía, with a view to it becoming the future stage of the amphitheatre. The work involved the construction of retaining walls, the reconstruction of the outer rim of the threshing circle, which had fallen away completely and the restoration of the ancient cobbled floor. The work took a month to complete and the team was made up of one unemployed member of each family of the town, with about 20 families taking part in total.

… USING LOCAL MATERIALS

… AND TRADITIONAL BUILDING TECHNIQUES

… AND TAPPING INTO THE “KNOW-HOW” OF THE LOCAL PEOPLE

Marzo-julio 2014

Rows of stone seating were built around the threshing circle to transform it into an amphitheatre. We used the building techniques and materials traditionally used to create the agricultural terraces of the Alpujarra so that space we created would be in harmony with its spectacular natural surroundings.

… FINANCED IN PART THROUGH CROWDFUNDING

… A DESIGN THAT ADAPTS TO THE SHAPE OF THE LAND

… SEATING FOR 250 PEOPLE

Julio 2015

With the help of the local Granada government (la Diputación de Granada), in July 2015 we were able to build much-needed stairs up the sides of the amphitheatre, as well as a toilet block and a storeroom for all the equipment. These much needed improvements meant the corn-threshing circle’s transformation into a theatre was finally complete.

THE STORY… IN VIDEO

…AND IN PHOTOS

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The Festival

Me vuelves Lorca is brought to you by an ever-growing (and hard-working!) group of volunteers from the local area and all sorts of other places. We pride ourselves on offering absurdly good theatre and music in a space that is as simple as it is beautiful. The result is magical. A return to the essence of theatre in unspoilt corner of southern Spain just waiting to be discovered.

So don’t just go on holiday this summer… travel. And enjoy a truly one-of-a-kind, off-the-beaten-track experience… in Laroles!

The Festival was set in motion by the local town hall (el Ayuntamiento de Nevada) in conjunction with the Me vuelves Lorca Association, a cultural association that has been working since 2009 to promote theatre in the area. Our aim is to challenge the lack of access to culture typical in rural areas and, in this way, follow in the footsteps of Lorca himself, whose theatre company (La Barraca) took the Spanish classics into every corner of rural Spain. In this way, the Festival represents a creative solution to a complex problem: it seeks to combat rural problems (depopulation, unemployment, lack of resources and limited access to cultural) in a different way, transforming culture into a catalyst for the local economy.