Villanueva de la Concepción

This is one of the oldest festivals in Malaga Province, declared a Celebration of National Tourist Interest by the Tourism Council of in 2001 and shortly after, an activity of Tourist Interest peculiar to the Province, by the Provincial Government.

The Verdial is a manifestation belonging to popular malagueña culture, from a farming culture which has endured for centuries, the origin of which is difficult to establish due to the lack of written documentation or historical references. Some authors, among them José Maria Bonald, point to the consistency of archaic Moorish forms in the Verdial while Julio Caro Baroja maintains that Verdial Celebrations are a collective manifestation of the people that goes back to an ancestral pre-Roman origin, as demonstrated by the fact that the most important celebrations coincide with the winter solstice (Major Verdial Celebration) or with the summer solstice (Night of San Juan).

Nowadays the Verdial is considered as a cultural manifestation of the first order, originating in Malaga, and that its legacy (passed on from parents to children) is full of the magical and the primitive, the pagan and the religious, and the joys and spirituality of a Mediterranean and European culture.

Since 1981 Villanueva de la Concepción has been assembling the leading Verdiales bands to participate in the oldest festival of Malaga Province. Villanueva de la Concepción’s Verdiales Festival was the first in which the participants did not dance with members of the public as had been customary. Instead, from that year for the first time the bands used a stage, and this practice has been extended to the rest of the province.

In order to recognise each one of the three different forms of verdiales (Comares, Almogía and Montes) in the Verdiales Festival, the contest is now organized by style. Previously, there was a risk that only the showiest style would win all contests resulting in the disappearance of both remaining styles. Thanks to this initiative the three styles of verdiales remain today, and are known throughout the province.

The bands’ attire is the same as that used by people in the fields and only varies in the Major Verdiales Celebration for the Day of the Innocents, when Panama hats loaded with adornments such as reflectors, flowers and ribbons are worn, proving to us the ancestral origin of the Verdiales Celebration. This is also similar to that used in Greek and other Mediterranean cultures.

Once the involvement of bands enrolled in the festival has ended, the celebration continues until dawn, with visitors able to join any of the groups parading around town to the rhythm of verdiales, while tasting all types of products typical of the municipality.

The festival is organized by the Villanueva de la Concepción City Council, the Sports-Cultural Sponsorship and the El Torcal Verdial Restaurant, and is sponsored by the Malaga Delegation and the Junta of Andalucía.

What are Verdiales?

Verdiales are songs sung for dancing, with dance therefore being a very important element. It can even be done individually, in which case one dances with a banner.

Another variety is dancing by couples, either two women or a man and a woman, where high levels of beauty are reached, and on some occasions even sensuality, depending on the movements or "changes" that the dancing couple execute which, of course, must be to the beat of the music.

Finally, there is dancing by threes, also known as trenzaillo or even “the drone". In this case, a man dances with two women, and recreates something very common in nature from which the festive inspiration is always taken: courtship and harassment of the queen bee by the male (drone). Translated into a less symbolic language, two women "harass" a man dancing, trying to make their turns behind his back, thus ending him symbolically.

A good part of this beautiful dance spectacle depends on the dancer’s ability to avoid turning his back, as well as of the coordination of movements of the three dancers.

The instruments for verdiales are varied in both type and number. The lead, the violin, was the last instrument to be incorporated into the Celebration (19th Century), but is now one of the most important. It carries the melody and leads the other members, since its notes mark the songs, the entrances and exits, and "las subias", which are phrases played by the violin. Along with the violin we have the Spanish guitar, the percussion (cymbals, castanets and drumsticks) and finally, like the great lord of rhythm, the tambourine, whose blows and brushes provide the rhythmical adornment that serves as a smooth elegant counterpoint to the melody of the violin and the laments of the flamenco singer.

There are three styles of verdiales. The Montes de Malaga Style, the oldest of all, is the driest and most simple rhythm but, due also to its simplicity and crudity, one of the most difficult styles to interpret properly. Next is the joyful Almogía Style, in which the violin plays centre stage with a fine melody and a profusion of raised notes, in which the cymbals, beaten at three beats at great speed, elaborate peculiar adornments of great colour. And finally, coming from the Moorish people the Comares Style, where the lute appears, and even a bandurria.

As director of such a singular and beautiful orchestra, we have “The Mayor of the Band”, who conducts it and plays the opening and the fadeout on the violin. He advises the dancers when the celebration is about to conclude, and also puts order into the involvement in singing. For such needs he relies on his conductor’s baton.

And last but not least the singing, the unquestionable star of all flamenco shows, to which the verdial belongs (the only folk singing in all of Andalucía on which this honour is bestowed). The verdial frames within the songs of Malaga among the fandangos. The themes are varied, with love a source of high-priority inspiration, both for women and for men.