The Cap Roig Festival, Costa Brava

June—August in the Costa Brava is not only the high tourist season but also high time for music festivals: each major resort town attempts to organize something unique and get big names onto the lineup to attract both the residents and the guests of the area alike. The Cap Roig Festival is especially successful in this regard. Some of the artists to make an appearance over the years included Sting, Lady Gaga, Rod Stewart, Carlos Santana, Status Quo, Pet Shop Boys, Andrea Bocelli, and Woody Allen with his jazz band.

The Cap Roig Festival was born in 2001 and takes place in one of the most picturesque spots of the Mediterranean—the Cap Roig Botanical Gardens (Jardins de Cap Roig), built in the 1920s by the Russian colonel and the World War I hero Nicolai Woevodsky and a British aristocrat Dorothy Webster, his wife. In 1969, the couple gifted the gardens and everything in them, including the castle built by Nicolai himself, to the Spanish public.

Next to the castle is where the stage and the audience seating area are mounted every year. Several bars and a restaurant are found nearby, where the anticipating public gets together before and shares their music experiences afterwards with no rush to get out after the festival ends.

The Cap Roig Festival formula is simple: starting in the second week of July and until the beginning of August, the concerts take place weekly on Saturdays and Sundays, then daily for a few weeks, ending with a big bang weekend at the end of August. The total duration of the Cap Roig Festival is roughly a month and a half with over 25 concerts being performed there overall.

The easiest way to purchase tickets is online, visiting the official website of the festival.