Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

ENTERTAINMENT

What’s on in Sweden: August 8 – 14

What’s on in Sweden: August 8th – 14th. Culture and city pride in Stockholm, Culture and jazz in Gothenburg, Deep Purple near Malmö and Reggae nights in Uppsala

Published: 7 August 2008 10:05 CEST
What’s on in Sweden: August 8 - 14
GoO8 festival, Lee "Scratch" Perry in Uppsala, My Animal Park by Mats Ringqvist

STOCKHOLM

Stockholm Culture Festival

Stockholm’s Culture Festival 2008 gets going on Tuesday. The six-day culture, music and arts festival will explode to life at venues across the centre of the city. More than 400 shows performed by 250 artists from all over the globe are on offer over a packed six day schedule.

Price: Free of charge

Location: Sergels Square, Brunkebergsporten and Kulturhuset

Time: Tuesday August 12th – Sunday August 17th

More information: www.stockholm.se

Go08

Stockholmer’s own festival takes place on 08-08-08 and begins at 08.08am. What’s the significance? – well it is the telephone prefix required for dialling ”The Capital of Scandinavia”, of course. A freak of the calender means this Saturday could not be more Stockholm and gives a good excuse for a party. Continuing the 08 theme – events and happenings will cost no more that 8 kronor.

Price: 0-8 kronor

Location: Starts in Globen at 8.08am with a free breakfast. Venues across the city centre

Time: Friday August 8th

More information: www.thecapitalofscandinavia.com

Vinterviken harvest market

Vinterviken is a lush oasis wedged between Aspudden and Gröndal. Well known for Alfred Nobel’s gunpowder factory and a thriving cafe it is also home to Vinterviken’s garden society, which on Sunday will host its first harvest market of the season.

Vegetables, juice, jams, oils, vinegars, honey – stock up your larders for the winter.

Price: Free of charge

Location: Vinterviken organic gardens, Vinterviksvägen 40

Times: Sunday August 10th, 11am-4pm

More information: www.vinterviken.com

GOTHENBURG

Gothenburg Culture Festival 2008

Tuesday marks the start of the party that will bring Sweden’s second city to life. For six days the streets and squares will be transformed into festival venues with a wide assortment of entertainment. The broad mix on offer guarantees that there will be activities and entertainment to suit all ages and tastes. Best of all it won’t cost you a dime.

Price: Free of charge

Location: City centre

Time: Tuesday August 12th – Sunday August 17th

More information: www.goteborg.com

Gothenburg Jazz Festival

The 20th anniversary Gothenburg Jazz festival opens on Friday. Three days of swing, New Orleans jazz, gospel and blues will be performed at eight venues across the centre of the city.

Price: 690 kronor, reduced prices for students. Day tickets available.

Location: City centre

Time: Friday August 8th – Sunday August 10th

Tickets: www.ticnet.se

More information: www.gothenburgjazzfestival.com

My Animal Park

Visit an unusual animal park and meet a five metre long dinosaur skeleton made from radiators, snakes and alligators from tyres, and bats from umbrellas.

Artist Eric Langert has created this inspiring exhibition which shows us an unusual and imaginative way of looking at our surroundings.

Price: 40 kronor.

Location: Maritime Museum, Karl Johansgatan

Time: Tuesday to Sunday, 10am – 5pm

More Information: www.goteborg.se

MALMÖ/YSTAD

Deep Purple

Deep Purple were one of the most important and influential heavy metal bands of the 1970s. Along with Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath, they are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal and modern hard rock and will this Saturday play Öja Slottsruin near Ystad. If that’s not enough to make you take the half hour train ride from Malmö – Deep Purple will be joined by guests Europe and Bonafide.

Price: 425 kronor

Location: Öja Slottsruin, Ystad

Time: Saturday August 9th, 7.30pm

Tickets: www.ticnet.se

More Information: www.ojakrog.se

House of Dreams street-circus festival

Circus artists from Belgium, Holland, Spain, France and Argentina are on hand with impressive acrobatics, performance art and poetic juggling at the House of Dreams in the vibrant heart of Malmö suburb Rosengård. Music, workshops and face painting make this an outing for the whole family.

Price: Free of charge

Location: Drömmarnas Hus, Rosengård

Time: Saturday August 9th, 2pm

More Information: www.malmo.se

Skåne’s dance theatre

Skåne’s theatre dance company presents the highlights of the past year’s repertoire with inhouse choreographers and some of the theatre’s own dancers.

There will also be a chance to gain a sneak preview of the autumn’s new performance INTERFERENCE.

Price: Free of charge

Location: Amfiteatern, Pildammsparken

Time: Wednesday August 13th, 7pm

More Information: www.malmo.se

UPPSALA

Uppsala Reggae Festival

This year marks the eighth edition of the Uppsala Reggae Festival. The festival is the largest strictly reggae music festival in Scandinavia and has been dubbed ”The Reggae Mecca of Scandinavia”. Burning Spear, Lee ”Scratch” Perry and Junior Reid will this year lead a host of stars from near and far that will turn the otherwise stately Swedish university town of Uppsala into an easy skanking punky reggae party.

Price: From 500 kronor

Location: On the banks of the Fyris river, Uppsala

Time: Thursday August 7th – Saturday August 9th

Tickets: www.ticnet.se

More Information: www.uppsalareggaefestival.se

MUSIC

Meet the Spanish rapper bringing flamenco and bossa nova into hip-hop

Spanish rapper C. Tangana was taking a big risk when he started mixing old-fashioned influences like flamenco and bossa nova into his hip-hop -- but it's this eclectic sound that has turned him into a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.

Published: 23 May 2021 08:38 CEST
Meet the Spanish rapper bringing flamenco and bossa nova into hip-hop
Spanish rapper Anton Alvarez known as 'C. Tangana' poses in Madrid on April 29, 2021. Photo: Javier Soriano/AFP

The 30-year-old has emerged as one of the world’s biggest Spanish-language stars since his third album “El Madrileno” — the Madrilenian — came out in February. That ranks him alongside his superstar ex-girlfriend Rosalia, the Grammy-winning Catalan singer with whom he has co-written several hits.

C. Tangana, whose real name is Anton Alvarez Alfaro, has come a long way since a decade ago when he became known as a voice of disillusioned Spanish youth in the wake of the financial crisis.These days his rap is infused with everything from reggaeton and rumba to deeply traditional styles from Spain and Latin America, with a voice often digitised by autotune.

“It’s incredible that just when my music is at its most popular is exactly when I’m doing something a bit more complex, more experimental and less
trendy,” he told AFP in an interview.

And he is unashamed to be appealing to a wider audience than previously: his dream is now to make music “that a young person can enjoy in a club or someone older can enjoy at home while cooking”.

‘People are tired’

The rapper, who sports a severe semi-shaved haircut and a pencil moustache, has worked with Spanish flamenco greats including Nino De Elche, Antonio Carmona, Kiko Veneno, La Hungara and the Gipsy Kings.

In April he brought some of them together for a performance on NPR’s popular “Tiny Desk Concert” series, which has already drawn nearly six million
views on YouTube.

Shifting away from trap, one of rap’s most popular sub-genres, and venturing into a more traditional repertoire was a dangerous move — especially for someone with a young fanbase to whom rumba, bossa nova and bolero sound old-fashioned.

“I think people are tired. They’ve had enough of the predominant aesthetic values that have previously defined pop and urban music,” he said.

Parts of his latest album were recorded in Latin America with Cuban guitarist Eliades Ochoa of Buena Vista Social Club, Uruguayan
singer-songwriter Jorge Drexler, Mexican folk artist Ed Maverick and Brazil’s Toquinho, one of the bossa nova greats.

“What struck me most everywhere I went was the sense of tradition and the way people experienced the most popular music, and I don’t mean pop,” he said.

A new direction

C. Tangana started out in 2006 rapping under the name Crema. When the global economic crisis swept Spain a few years later, hard-hitting trap was
the perfect way to voice the angst of his generation. But after more than a decade of rapping, things changed.

“When I was heading for my 30s, I hit this crisis, I was a bit fed up with what I was doing… and decided to give voice to all these influences that I
never dared express as a rapper,” he said.

The shift began in 2018 with “Un veneno” (“A poison”) which came out a year after his big hit “Mala mujer” (“Bad woman”).

And there was a return to the sounds of his childhood when he used to listen to Spanish folk songs at home, raised by a mother who worked in
education and a journalist father who liked to play the guitar. The Latin American influences came later.

“It started when I was a teenager with reggaeton and with bachata which were played in the first clubs I went to, which were mostly Latin,” he said.

Studying philosophy at the time, he wrote his first raps between stints working in call centres or fast-food restaurants.

As to what comes next, he doesn’t know. But one thing he hopes to do is collaborate with Natalia Lafourcade, a Mexican singer who dabbles in folk, rock and pop — another jack of all musical trades.

SHOW COMMENTS