Where can you get stunning mountain views and great music? At the Pause Festival.
Set in Spain’s gorgeous Málaga mountains, five open-air concerts will take place from August 18 through 22, 2017 at a retreat in the hills.
Finca La Donaira, a 250-hectare farm, smart design retreat, and equestrian center is a great place to disconnect from technology and connect with nature instead. The organizers say that everything at the retreat is designed to restore and sustain the natural balance, from its well-designed buildings to the environment and soil, and even to the food that guests will be eating during the festival.
“Life at Finca La Donaira is one long pause,” the festival’s organizers say. “The time spent with visitors from all walks of life, from architects, beekeepers, musicians, artisan craftsman, Olympians, writers, sophisticated urbanites and foragers, brings fresh thinking, lively conversations, and a cross-pollination of ideas.”
The Pause Festival is taking place in cooperation with the Partiura Movement, an international collective of musicians whose goal is to perform to new audiences in non-traditional venues. It is being organized by a small professional team in collaboration with Finca La Donaira.
“Pause explores man’s relationship with nature by bringing music out of concert halls,” the organizers say. “Thanks to the wild setting, it provides the opportunity to simply relax, reconnect, realign, and recharge your natural batteries too.”
With its outdoor staging and acoustically balanced indoor saloons, Finca La Donaira is already known as a unique concert venue that has attracted many world-class musicians. Performers at the Pause Festival include cellist Camille Thomas, flamenco cantaora (singer) Mayte Martin, composer and pianist Rupert Huber, and composer and jazz pianist Juan Ramón Veredas Navarro. Check out the full program here.
Accommodations include all-inclusive on-site five-day packages, and there are several other hotels and casas rurales (rural houses) in the area as well. You can also choose between one-day tickets or a five-day pass for evening concerts only if budget is a concern. Evening sessions include a tapas dinner followed by the main concert performance.
Since the festival is only about 10 days away as of this writing, you’d better book your plane tickets and passes now if you want to go. If you can’t make it this year, keep an eye on the Pause Festival website for next year’s dates.