Next year India will host the first international edition of the Festival Cante de las Minas, in accordance with an agreement with the Maharaja of Jodphur and the mayor of La Unión, Francisco Bernabé.
The agreement includes the creation of a center to study the music of Rajasthan and flamenco, which will annually organize a flamenco festival which will also include study of the possible common origins of both forms of expression.
The festival, which is planned to be one week long, will have a first part in which stars of flamenco will perform, and a second part in which local artists of cante, guitar and dance will compete, and winners will directly classify for the finals of the La Unión contest.
The memorandum of agreement was signed in the Urmaid Bhawn Palace, the official residence of the Maharajah of Rajahstan, attended by many of his family members including Princess Shivranjai Rajye. It featured performances by a Rajastani group composed of four musicians and a dancer, and the Spanish flamenco troupe “Raices Flamencas” made up of the singer Antonio Mejías, the guitarist Antonio Muñóz, the dancer María Canea and the percussionist Josué Rodríguez, whose duende delighted the many officials and authorities as well as the press and broadcast media that covered the event. Then the Rajastani group appeared, followed by a joint performance of both groups with original musical fusion that demonstrated beyond doubt the shared roots of these styles, to enormous acclaim and applause.
