Chucho Valdés, Azucarillo Kings and Calexico, on the line-up for Cruïlla 2024

Have you made plans for this summer? You can already mark in red in your diary the three days in July when the 2024 edition of the Cruïlla festival will take place, an event full of outstanding names, among them great international artists such as Avril Lavigne and The Smashing Pumpkins, who have just been joined by Cuban Chucho Valdés on his return to Barcelona, and the border rock of Calexico (in the picture. Photo: Holly Andrés). With them, local artists ranging from Oques Grasses, The Tyets and Albert Pla to Marala and Xarim Aresté.

Cruïlla offers concert series all year round or almost all year round, both in Barcelona and in other Catalan towns, but its main event is the great festival held in Barcelona, which, in addition to its outstanding musical offer, also includes proposals related to other arts, such as the performing and visual arts.

Among the proposals announced this year, there are big names from the national pop scene and the urban music that is currently being made in Catalan. Come to the Parc del Fòrum on the first day of the festival, Wednesday 10 July, and you'll find a line-up made up of some of the most sought-after musicians of the moment, including 31 FAM, who have become a benchmark in urban music with a mixture of styles, a powerful autotune and lyrics that speak of their day-to-day lives. You will also have, among others, María Becerra and María Escarmiento, as well as Rojuu, one of the youngest and most prolific artists of the moment.

With them, the Argentinian Trueno will show you how he combines trap and rap; Funzo & Baby Loud will show you why they are considered the great representatives of new pop in Spanish; and the Figa Flawas will sing, among others, songs like La Tabarra. Kora, Silvia Lua and Maria Blaya are other artists who will be on stage on the first day of the festival.

The following day, Thursday 11 July, you'll have a big international name, Chucho Valdés, who returns to Barcelona with Irakere 50, the concert with which he pays tribute to the band he founded five decades ago. What else is new? Los Azucarillo Kings, the city's most rogue band, which disbanded in 2001 and returned in 2018, will have you dancing for a good time. La Plazuela, Morochos and Bia Ferreira are other artists on the same day. Also, on Thursday the 11th, Albert Pla, a great artist who fills concert halls as much as he does films or TV series, will take the stage. At Cruïlla 2024, he will offer a concert entitled Rumbagenarios that will combine songs from his first album to the latest pieces he has created.

Friday, 12th July, will be one of the festival's big days, with such well-known state artists as Amaral, who are celebrating twenty-five years of life and are on the full Revolución tour. On the same day, Avril Lavigne, the queen of pop-rock, relives her best moments in a concert you shouldn't miss. Finally, the optimism, energy and avant-garde sounds of Shinova complete Friday's programme. They present an album, El presente, with which they begin a new stage. Delaporte, Mälmo 40 and Selah Sue will also join Friday's party, among many others.

Finally, on Saturday, 13 July, the programme includes a performance by Calexico, an American band with Latin influences, who play a borderline rock that has made them famous everywhere. !!! Chk Chk Chk Chk, the very spiritual Aurora or the hip-hop and reggae vocalist Peter Fox, who you will probably know as the leader of the German band Seeed, all play on the same day. Fox will be seen solo, showing optimism in a world that is falling apart. On the same day, you'll get one of the festival's headliners, The Smashing Pumpkins. They are veterans who have been playing together since 1988, have won two Grammys, sold thirty million albums... and are already part of the history of late 20th and early 21st century music.

On the same Saturday, you'll also have Oques Grasses, authors of such well-known songs as La gent que estimo, Serem ocells and In the night, who are taking advantage of their appearance at Cruïlla to present an album, the sixth in their career. With them, Tyets, the duo from Mataró that has made a few danceable anthems mixing trap and reggaeton with other music, as well as Marala, Al-lèrgiques al Polen and, pay attention, the always indomitable Xarim Aresté.

These are just some of the artists at Cruïlla 2024, a festival that combines music with theatrical performances in the form of comedy monologues. Here you'll find everything from big names on the Catalan monologue scene to big names on the national scene.

If you want to know everything about the Cruïlla 2024 festival, check out the festival's website.