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Are you a culture vulture heading to Gran Canaria? You certainly won’t starve on an arts-loving island. Join the feast, for example, at the Gran Canaria capital’s LPA Film Festival 2017.
As one of Spain’s major cities, it’s perhaps a surprise that Time Out haven’t launched a Las Palmas de Gran Canaria edition yet. We’re happy to fill the void with regular previews of major cultural events such as the LPA Film Festival 2017.
1. LPA Film Festival 2017: what
The LPA Film Festival 2017, aka 17º Festival Internacional Cine de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is one of the key dates on Gran Canaria’s events’ calendar. By doing the math, you’ll work out that this film festival debuted in 2000. Big names attending the event have included such international movie stars as Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon.
At the 17th LPA Film Festival you can take your pick from 100 films. The likes of the Spanish premiere of the Oscar-nominated documentary: I Am Not Your Negro. And Albertina Carri’s Cuatreros, shown for the first time outside Argentina/Germany.
There are also two spin-off events: the more industry-focused MECAS and the Monopol Music Festival. The former showcases almost-finished films whilst the latter hosts screenings of music documentaries plus live gigs. So you’ll be able to catch Jim Jarmusch’s tribute to The Stooges, Gimme Danger, and Grammy-winning Mexican pop-rocker Julieta Venegas in concert.
2. LPA Film Festival 2017: where
The 17th edition of the LPA Film Festival will be spread across four venues in Triana and Vegueta. The two main ones are the Teatro Pérez Galdós and Multicines Monopol, although there are also freebie shows in Plaza Santa Ana in front of the cathedral (lo-fi hero Carlos Sadness, spooky Aurora & The Betrayers, and local rapper Nestakilla on Friday 7th April and indie supergroup León Benevante, electronica’s Mendetz, and pop subversives Solo Astra on Saturday 8th April) and ticket-only gigs at The Paper Club (tart rock trio Los Vinagres on Friday 31st March and another native Canarian hip-hopper in Bejo on Saturday 8th April). Whether you’re travelling to the festival by blue Global or yellow Guaguas Municipales bus, ask your driver to let you know when you reach the Teatro stop as this is within comfortable walking distance of all four venues.
3. LPA Film Festival 2017: when
The 17º Festival Internacional Cine de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria runs from Friday 31st March to Sunday 9th April. It officially opens with the daunting feature-length Katie Says Goodbye which you can watch for free whilst seats remain available by visiting the box office at the Pérez Galdós theatre in advance, although there’s an earlier morning Monopol screening of The Vanished Dream, a portrait of post-independent Guinea-Bissau. From the 29th March, you can buy individual tickets for screenings for €4 or a five-film package for €12.
The festival ends with the simultaneous screenings of the aforementioned Gimme Danger in Multicines Monopol Sala 4 and Omega in Sala 3. They both show on the final Sunday night. The latter documents a heady brew of flamenco, rock, and poetry, as blended together by Granada’s Enrique Morente.