FESTIVAL PROGRAMMES: in-house projects that broaden the cultural experience

Beyond its artistic programme, the Portalblau Festival runs a range of in-house programmes that broaden the festival’s cultural reach and reinforce its commitment to the local area, society and new artistic creation. Through these initiatives, the festival views culture not only as a space for artistic exhibition, but also as a tool for reflection, social transformation and cultural development.

Since its inception, Portalblau has built a cultural project that combines artistic excellence, critical thinking and a commitment to the social and environmental context in which it operates. This vision takes shape in a series of programmes that form part of the festival’s identity and enable it to extend its impact beyond the stage.

The festival’s own programmes – Mirades Blaves, Valors i Compromís, the Portalblau Network and Espai PROA – articulate different dimensions of this cultural project. Through them, the festival fosters spaces for dialogue and reflection, promotes social and environmental responsibility, encourages cooperation among cultural actors and creates opportunities for emerging talent.

Mirades Blaves creates a space for reflection and debate, inviting the public to consider issues that challenge contemporary society. Valors i Compromís brings together the festival’s initiatives aimed at generating a positive social and environmental impact, incorporating activities linked to sustainability, education, equality and support for charitable projects. The Portalblau Network promotes cultural cooperation and networking with leading festivals and cultural organisations, forging partnerships that enable the sharing of experiences and the promotion of joint projects. Finally, Espai PROA fosters new creative work and supports emerging talent, creating opportunities for new artistic careers to develop and connect with the public.

With this vision, Portalblau consolidates a festival model that goes beyond the stage and understands culture as a shared experience capable of enriching the cultural life of the region, stimulating critical thinking and generating new opportunities for creation.

The festival has a sustainability strategy based on the document ‘https://www.agenda21culture.net/sites/default/files/culturaods_web_es.pdf’, highlighting the importance of culture in achieving the SDGs at a local level.

Portalblau also defines itself as a fundamentally people-centred festival, which places people, knowledge and culture at the heart of the project, and which sees culture as a space for encounter, dialogue and collective creation

Values and commitment: culture, the local area and shared responsibility

Culture plays a fundamental and defining role in human life. Music, art and all their forms of expression are essential and highly effective in conveying values. Cultural festivals, as spaces for gathering and shared creativity, have a unique opportunity to contribute to this task, demonstrating the importance of culture as a force for social cohesion and a driver of change.

The Portalblau Festival is deeply committed to culture, society and the environment. It stands out for the uniqueness of its approach and the way it articulates its identity within the country’s festival landscape. Its programme is distinguished by its artistic excellence, but also by a clear commitment to building a cultural project grounded in values, based on accessibility, the creation of new audiences and support for emerging artists.

It is within this context that the Valors i Compromís Programme was launched, a dedicated space within the festival designed to promote initiatives that enrich the community, foster social and environmental awareness, and promote positive and sustainable change. Launched in 2020, the programme has established itself as a strategic pillar of the festival, integrating projects linked to sustainability, training, social support and cultural promotion.

The Values and Commitment Programme is structured around three main areas of focus: Commitment to the environment, Commitment to society, and Commitment to culture. With this vision, Portalblau defines itself as a fundamentally human festival, which sees culture as a tool for raising awareness, fostering social cohesion and bringing about social transformation.

Portalblau promotes a range of initiatives aimed at generating a positive social impact and strengthening the link between culture and the community. Among the key initiatives are:

Training and education

The festival promotes a range of educational initiatives designed to bring culture to new generations. These include the Portalblau Training Course, aimed at young people aged 16 to 20 to learn how a festival works, which is now in its fifth year.

The festival also collaborates with universities and training centres, particularly the University of Girona, and organises talks in local secondary schools to raise awareness of careers linked to the world of culture and cultural management.

Gender equality

Portalblau maintains a firm commitment to promoting equality and diversity through various initiatives:

• An inclusive and gender-balanced artistic programme, with an equal representation of women and men.
• A guide to good practice from a gender perspective, promoted by the festival as a reference document for incorporating equality into the organisation of cultural festivals.
• Prevention protocols against gender-based violence, to ensure safe and respectful spaces for everyone.
• Specialised training on how to apply a gender perspective.

Decent work and opportunities for young people

Portalblau promotes employment and access to the world of work for the younger generation:

• A job board for young people, launched in 2020, which has already facilitated over 125 job placements, often as a first work experience.
• Collaboration with universities and training centres to provide work placements and opportunities in the field of cultural management.

Support for charitable projects

As part of its social commitment, the Portalblau Festival supports charitable initiatives linked to people’s health and well-being.

In this edition, the festival is collaborating with projects led by leading healthcare centres in the region, such as the Doctor Josep Trueta University Hospital in Girona, which develops initiatives aimed at improving patient care and promoting medical research and innovation.

At the same time, Portalblau supports the fundraising campaign by the Empordà Health Foundation to improve the facilities and equipment at the Bernat Jaume Intermediate Care Hospital in Figueres, with the aim of making the stay more comfortable for inpatients and their families and contributing to their well-being during the recovery process.

Through these initiatives, the festival strengthens the link between culture, health and the community, reinforcing its commitment to the region and to initiatives that help improve people’s quality of life.

As a festival, Portalblau is firmly committed to carrying out all its activities with the lowest possible environmental impact. This responsibility extends to every level of the organisation: management, technical staff, artists, suppliers, sponsors and the attending public.

The festival works actively to reduce its ecological footprint and implement good environmental practices, supported by environmental specialists who help to develop environmental assessments and plans to reduce emissions and ecological impact.

Key initiatives include:

• Environmental assessment and improvement plans to reduce the festival’s environmental impact.
• Protection of natural ecosystems and biodiversity, with particular attention to the marine and terrestrial environments in which activities take place.
• Sustainable mobility, encouraging the use of public transport, car-sharing and other travel options with a lower environmental impact.
• Efficient energy management, incorporating energy-saving measures and the use of renewable energy wherever possible.
• Waste reduction, eliminating single-use plastics and promoting recycling and the use of sustainable materials.
• Responsible food management, based on locally sourced produce and including measures to reduce food waste.
• Efficient water management, with actions to reduce water consumption and protect water resources.
• Measuring and offsetting the carbon footprint to reduce the festival’s overall environmental impact.

This series of initiatives forms part of the festival’s identity and establishes Portalblau as a model of a sustainable and socially responsible cultural festival.

The Portalblau Network: connecting festivals with values

One of the most unique initiatives launched by the festival is the Portalblau Network, a cultural cooperation project that connects festivals and various cultural stakeholders with the aim of sharing experiences, generating synergies and promoting joint cultural projects. Created in 2020, this network promotes the exchange of best practices, the development of joint initiatives and new opportunities for artistic mobility.

Through this initiative, Portalblau has established partnerships with leading festivals and cultural organisations, including the Castillo de Peralada Festival, El Sismógrafo, the MOT Festival, Ethno Catalonia, the Vic Live Music Market, the Manresa Mediterranean Fair, the Carulla Foundation, the Tierra Museum, the Alive Foundation and the Festival de los Gerundenses.

This networking enables the sharing of innovative methodologies, the promotion of joint projects and the creation of synergies that enrich programming and reinforce the role of culture as a tool for social transformation.

This year, the festival is expanding this networking with new cultural partnerships, such as the collaboration with ELEA – School of Philosophy and with the ConArte Internacional Association, based in the Alt Empordà region, which is behind the LLAVORS project.

The LLAVORS project works within the educational and cultural environment of rural schools in the Alt Empordà to promote the presence of the arts in the educational process. The initiative brings together artists, the educational community and the local area, encouraging artists to participate in the classroom, providing teacher training in arts-based teaching methods, and developing cultural projects linked to the social and cultural reality of rural life.

The Alt Empordà is one of the regions in Catalonia with the highest number of Rural School Zones (ZER), which are groups of nursery and primary schools from various municipalities that share an educational programme and resources. In this context, SEMILLAS helps to reinforce the role of the rural school as an educational and cultural space within the region.

With this initiative, Portalblau reinforces its commitment to the region, education and cultural rights, helping to highlight the role of the arts in social cohesion and the cultural development of rural areas.

A programme to promote new talent

This year, the Portalblau Festival is taking its commitment to creativity a step further by launching the Espai Proa programme, an initiative designed to support and raise the profile of emerging talent in the region. Through this programme, the festival aims to create new platforms and opportunities for artists at the start of their careers to present their projects, develop professionally and connect with audiences.

The programme is structured around two main strands. Firstly, the Escenario Portalblau Competition, now in its fourth year, which has established itself as a platform for discovering new talent.

On the other hand, the programme is also reflected in the festival’s artistic line-up itself. For this edition, the artistic direction team has made a clear commitment to including 10 emerging acts amongst the 29 artists featured on the bill, representing more than a third of the programme.

This significant presence highlights the Portalblau Festival’s commitment to new creation, generating real opportunities for artists in the early stages of their careers to showcase their work and grow professionally. At the same time, this programming approach contributes to the renewal of the cultural scene and the creation of new audiences, opening up spaces for discovery and visibility for new artistic proposals.

With Espai Proa, the festival reaffirms its commitment to new creative work and emerging talent, establishing Portalblau as a platform for discovery, support and promotion of new artistic careers.