ART LLOBET 2025 EXPLORES MUSIC IN TIMES OF CONFLICT
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The festival will present an edition dedicated to the relationship between art and conflict under the theme “Wars & Guitar”, reaffirming the guitar as a voice, refuge, and witness in difficult times.
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The program will feature concerts, guided tours, and immersive experiences in Barcelona’s historical memory spaces.
Barcelona | October 1, 2025 | 11:00AM
Art Llobet, Festival of the Arts and the Guitar, dedicated to the illustrious musician Miquel Llobet, will be held from October 18 to November 9, 2025, and this year proposes a historical and artistic journey under the title “Wars & Guitar”, a reflection on the role of music—and especially the classical guitar—during times of war.
From the First World War to the Spanish Civil War, music served as a tool for morale, propaganda, and creative resistance. As guitarist and researcher José Manuel González recalls in his article “The Guitar in Times of War”, not even the most tragic conflicts were able to completely silence musical activity.
The festival will explore this context through a program combining concerts, guided tours, and immersive experiences in emblematic historical memory sites across Barcelona, such as La Model prison, the air-raid shelters, or Poblenou Cemetery. These venues will become living witnesses of the connection between art and war.
The program includes young outstanding guitarists from the international scene and chamber ensembles presenting works related to this year’s theme, as well as contemporary creations and award-winning pieces from the Miquel Llobet Barcelona International Guitar Competition. A highlight will be the moving concert in homage to pianist Ricard Viñes, on his 150th anniversary, performed by the mandolin and guitar duo Carmen Jiménez and Carles Trepat.
The festival will conclude with the 2025 Llobet Competition Final, where the three finalists will perform works with a string quartet before the solemn awards ceremony.
Art Llobet 2025 invites audiences to discover how music—and particularly the guitar—has been refuge, witness, and voice amid tragedy.