On 3 August 2010 the 50th edition of the Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas begins in La Unión, Murcia, Spain.

This year’s Festival features artists such as Paco de Lucía, Manolo Sanlúcar, Enrique Morente, Miguel Poveda, Israel Galván, Chano Dominguez, Mayte Martín, José Mercé and the Ballet Nacional de España performing El Café de Chinitas – choreographed by José Antonio with music from the popular folksongs by Federico García Lorca.

Apart from this wonderful selection of artists, the main focus of the the La Unión Festival is the competition from 11–14 August 2010 for guitar, flamenco instruments, dance and most importantly flamenco cante. The best singer in the Concurso de Cante will receive the Premio Lámpara Minera.

The addition of the flamenco guitar competition came much later to Festival del Cante de la Minas, so this is only the XXXI Concurso de Guitarra Flamenca. An even later addition has been the flamenco dance competition, which this year is the XVII Concurso de Baile Flamenco. The newest section of the competition is the II Concurso de Instrumentalista Flamenco; the list of possible instruments includes: violin, flute saxophone, piano, keyboards, percussion instruments – including castanets, electric guitars or electric bass, synthesiers – basically any instrument, except the flamenco guitar.

The list of all the semifinalists, who will be performing on 11–13 August 2010 is already available.

© 2010 Thérèse Wassily Saba