Years go by, harsh winters too and, yet again, summer arrives with a new edition of " Festival de Guitarra de Estellencs Memorial Xavier Bestard", with the same enthusiasm and ambition as the first year it was organized.

This year will be the XVIIth edition of the festival, a venture not especially easy to move forward given the times of economic crisis we are all living. Fortunately, however, music itself is an activity that is not linked to the economy, being an inherent human sense which, therefore, knows nothing about economic or political flows. For this reason and especially in these hostile days we cannot allow these artistic activities to disappear. However, and unfortunately like many things in life, to go ahead with the festival has required the absolutely necessary effort of a lot of people who has been actively involved in promoting the festival. Not to do so would not be fair, nor realistic. So I, in the name of all the organizers, would like to thank firstly the people of Estellencs who has welcomed it and made it its own by giving it the name, to the City Council for being a firm and steady sponsor in difficult times, and as it could not be otherwise, all friends from "the Associació d'Amics de Xavier Bestard" who each year, voluntarily and completely selflessly cooperate financially to fund the festival. Also, obviously, a thought goes to all musicians that have gone through our festival leaving an indelible mark and who often had to comply with our modest budgets, putting forward, thus, our desire to keep the festival alive. To all, thank you very much.

In this way, it is great to announce that this year we will have again 4 amazing concerts, with the guitar as the main protagonist on stage led by top international musicians. Three concerts of classical music and one of jazz-manouche, following the essence of the festival, will bring colour to these forthcoming 2011 Estellencs summer nights.

Like every year, we hope you will like the programming and that these hours of music will be a beautiful short break for the current daily time.

We hope to see you there.


Oriol Bestard