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MadriNOLA brings the spirit of New Orleans to Madrid this July
Madrid will add a new festival this July for those seeking live music away from major summer venues. MadriNOLA arrives with a proposal focused on traditional jazz, swing and the spirit of New Orleans, with concerts in venues, dance spaces and a free open-air event in El Retiro.
The festival aims to turn the city into a small sound map of New Orleans for several days. The programme will bring together international musicians, local artists and bands specialising in that festive, intimate jazz full of improvisation that invites people both to listen and to move.
The concerts will take place in well-known Madrid venues such as Galileo Galilei, Sala Clamores, Big Mama Ballroom and Club Babylon. These are spaces with different audiences, allowing the festival not to confine itself to a single atmosphere and to reach both jazz enthusiasts and those who come out of curiosity.
One of the most accessible moments will be the free concert in Plaza de Galicia, inside Retiro Park. The event will make it possible to enjoy swing in the open air, in a less usual setting for this type of proposal and in a format designed for all audiences.
MadriNOLA is not conceived simply as a succession of performances. The programme includes jams, spaces for improvisation and gatherings where the music can change form as it goes along. That closeness is part of the appeal: the audience does not attend a closed show, but a living experience.
The mix of leading European musicians and artists from Madrid's scene also aims to reinforce the link between the international and the local. For years, Madrid has had a community of jazz, swing and social dancing that finds a new platform in this festival to show itself.
Tickets for the venue concerts can be bought in advance, although some activities will have free entry. The festival will run until Sunday 21 July, with events spread across different parts of the city and times designed to fit the summer schedule.
The arrival of MadriNOLA expands Madrid's increasingly diverse musical offering. In contrast to the large festivals and big line-ups, this proposal opts for something more intimate: venues with history, musicians playing just a few metres from the audience, dancing, improvisation and a way of experiencing July nights with less haste and more swing.