Jerez Flamenco Festival

Jerez de la Frontera, Andalucia

The small Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera is the home of sherry, Flamenco and some of the world’s finest horses.

If you wander the tangled streets of the old town you can follow the scent of sherry to track down a bodega, where you can take a tour to learn about the sherry-making process – and enjoy a bit of tasting. The rolling landscapes outside of the city produce grapes for the sherry, and you can stop off along the way at numerous Pueblos Blancos – pretty, white, hilltop towns.

We had the fortune to visit and write about the Flamenco Museum in Malaga but to get a full flavour of proper job flamenco what better city to visit than Jerez?

You can enjoy Flamenco year-round, with regular shows hosted at more than a dozen small flamenco clubs (peñas flamencas) that keep the tradition very much alive – including Spain’s second oldest peñas flamencas: Los Cernicalos.

The city also makes a great base from which to explore the wider Andalucian province of Cadiz.  Flights are available from regional airpots to Jerez but many visitors find it easier to get to the main airport in Andalucia, Malaga. Car hire is readily available and the drive to Jerez would be a few hours through the stunning Andalucian countryside alternatively you could take the fast train from Malaga via Seville to Jerez and pick up a hire car on arrival.  Car hire in Spain is particularly good value during the low season – when the Falmenco Festival takes place.

Nearby on the coast there are sandy beaches such as Tarifa on the Costa de la Luz, where the strong winds off the Straits of Gibraltar create the perfect conditions for kitesurfers and windsurfers. The typically Andalucian seaside city of Cadiz has a wonderful old core, with a network of narrow winding alleys linking large, open plazas. Dotted about the old centre there are well-preserved historical churches and other landmarks such as the remains of the ancient city walls.

There’s stacks to do year-round in and around Jerez, but many tourists time their visit to coincide with the annual world-famous Festival de Jerez, sometimes called the Flamenco Festival, every February

Festival de Jerez – The Flamenco Festival

26 February – 13 March 2010

Jerez is arguably the best place in the world to experience one of Spain’s most passionate and vibrant cultural expressions: Flamenco.

Many people are under the impression that Flamenco is part of the culture of the whole of Spain, but in fact it is only native to the Andalucian region. Jerez itself lays claim to being the birthplace of the tradition, and each year the city erupts with music and dance – representing one of the most important celebrations of Flamenco in the world.

In addition to lively ticketed shows featuring some of Spain’s most famous Flamenco dancers and guitarists, the festival also attracts dance students to its many training courses and workshops.

Venues include the Palacio de Villavicencio and the Villamarta Theatre.

www.festivaldejerez.es