The musical event will take place from August 19 to 23 with the participation of groups from Mexico, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland
The Ingenio Choirs and Dances Folkloric Group will represent Spain at the Funchal Folk Festival 2024 that takes place in the capital of the island of Madeira. The aforementioned musical event will take place this month between August 19 and 23, with the participation of different groups from Mexico, Lithuania, Spain (Canary Islands), Latvia and Poland.
Funchal Folk-Arraial do Mundo has an international character and seeks to promote and share the traditions and folklore of different nations, strengthening friendship between countries and the cultural identity of each country. Coros y Danzas de Ingenio will perform as part of this year's edition, whose concerts will take place in the atrium of the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish in Funchal.
The participation of the Ingenio group in the Funchal Folk festival occurs coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the veteran folklore group since its foundation in 1949. This intense trajectory has also been recognized this year 2024 with the awarding of the Gold Medal of the Canary Islands awarded by the Regional Government to the engineering group, which has been added to the numerous recognitions it had, among others, the Roque Nublo de Plata awarded by the Cabildo of Gran Canaria.
The Choirs and Dances expedition will be made up of about 33 people of all ages belonging to its musical rondalla and its dance group. The group led by David Castellano will offer a repertoire inspired by the traditional airs recovered in Ingenio, to which different themes from the islands' folklore will be added. Choirs and Dances will take advantage of the occasion to present in Madeira a sample of the most representative craftsmanship of Ingenuity with pieces and articles made in his Crafts Workshop.
The festival promoted by the Monte Verde folklore group is one of the initiatives supported by the International Council of Folklore Festival Organizations (CIOFF) as an official collaborating entity of UNESCO, whose task since 1970 is the protection, promotion and dissemination of culture traditional and folklore of the peoples of the world. The Ingenio International Folklore Festival 'Solidarity Show of the People' (declared a Festival of Cultural Tourist Interest in the Canary Islands) organized in Gran Canaria for 29 years by the Cultural Association Choirs and Dances of the aforementioned municipality is also included in the list of festivals promoted by UNESCO, highlighting it as a cultural reference in the Mid-Atlantic for the varied offering that its program always proposes.
Much of the history of the municipality of Ingenio cannot be understood without the dimension that the Agrupación Coros y Danzas, one of the most emblematic musical groups in the Canary Islands, has acquired since its founding 75 years ago. His uninterrupted work in favor of the recovery and dissemination of the musical heritage of Gran Canaria in general and Ingenio in particular, has earned the praise of countless ethnographers and folklorists, who have highlighted his work in compiling airs from the ancestral musical tradition of Ingenio, like the “Isa de la paría”, the “Polka del Capotín”, the “Polka del Artesano”, the “Sorondongo de Ingenio” or the “Rancho de Ánimas”. Had it not been for the enthusiastic interest displayed by the members of the group, these unique pieces would have been lost and they would not have been incorporated into Canarian folklore with all the purity and fidelity with which they were rescued.
