The Fresca! international performing arts festival, organized by the Valencia Institute of Culture, returns to the Alicante summer stage from July 20 to 30. This edition brings a new Mediterranean setting at Housewill, hosting eleven contemporary performances spanning circus, dance, theatre, flamenco, and music, while the opening sequence highlights two street performances. The festival kicks off with Pre-Refresh on July 16 and 19, staged along the refreshed Avenida Constitución.
Thirteen landscape-inspired programs guide attendees from intimate indoor spaces to refreshing outdoor environments, blending international ensembles (four from France and Belgium this year) with four national artists and five from the Valencian Community.
Abel Guarinos, Director of the IVC, unveiled the program this week, with co-design input from Alicante regional delegate Alice Garijo. This third edition signals a period of consolidation for Fresca!, following earlier editions that took place at the Port of Alicante and at the Plaza de Toros. This year also inaugurates a new festival stage at Casa Mediterráneo, a venue that has hosted memorable nighttime moments during the pandemic era.
Alicia Garijo stressed that the new venue embodies the festival’s mission: to fill Alicante’s summer with accessible, high-quality culture, offering programming that is distinctive, surprising, and entertaining for diverse audiences.
tickets
The festival operates with a budget of 350,000 euros and offers a range of prices from 5 to 24 euros. Fresca!’s six large-scale shows are complemented by five family-friendly performances. A Fresh Space option provides tickets from 5 euros. A four-show package is available for 48 euros, while children under 14 can attend for 10 euros. Tickets for ages 14 to 30 are 12 euros, with an additional 20% discount for retirees, the unemployed, and professionals in performing arts associations.
Programming
The third Fresca! edition opens on the 20th at 10 p.m. with the French company Galactic Community, delivering a first-time Spanish presentation that blends circus with mime theatre. On the 22nd, flamenco icon Rafaela Carrasco presents Night, the architecture of insomnia, a production featuring nine women on stage that earned the Critics’ Award for Best Dance Performance at the XXVII Festival de Flamenco de Jerez and was a MAX Awards finalist for Best Choreography.
The Franco-Basque company if only, supported by Scène Nationale du Sud-Aquitaine, presents gernikaa, a show blending dance and live music with traditional and contemporary culture on the 24th. On the 26th, gesture and circus theatre converge in Ronaldo Circus from Belgium, a troupe whose clowns have performed from Reykjavik to Lisbon and as far as Australia and New Zealand. The festival continues with further performances exploring movement and sound.
Alicante hosts REM HE on the 29th, a show where beds become a vehicle for inquiry, featuring four artists and inviting courage. Fresca! closes on the 30th with a dynamic dance and music program that brings together 16 performers, including eight dancers, four singers, and four musicians.
Fresh Space!
Fresh Space! presents five family-friendly performances at 8:00 p.m., starting on the 21st with the Catalan company Crisis, offering gestural theatre and circus in a home-like setting. On the 23rd, Belgian company Midnight, with Weis, unveils a knife-throwing spectacle designed to pull audiences into a vivid, risky world. Joãn Katala arrives on the 25th with a piece acclaimed at the Sebastià Gass Awards in Barcelona, the MiramirO Festival in Belgium, and the Zirkòlika Awards. On the 27th, the Murcian company presents devoid of, and the festival welcomes Manolo Alcántara, a National Circus Award winner in 2021, who closes the program on the 29th with manna, a MAX Awards finalist in the production category.
Pre-Refresh!
Pre-Refresh acts as a warm-up, presenting a dance program produced by the IVC and Pepa Cases. The lineup on the 16th features works related to Kiko López and Hello and Farewell connected to Wako Danza / Eduardo Zúñiga, with performances scheduled through the 19th.