A long history of organising festivals which take us back to the last century
The GMF - the Gibraltar Music Festival is back this September as the GMF Summer Sessions 2026 (3 to 5 September) at the Europa Sports Arena at Europa Point. Holding festivals – international music and cultural events – is not a new phenomenon locally. For over 170 years Gibraltar has attracted international performers and organised festivals and culture-based events. All mostly since the opening of the old Theatre Royal in 1847 when the theatre attracted many professional performances from Spain and beyond, the Italian opera companies that would come into port on their way to the Americas, and the many performers it also attracted from the UK. But I am not going to take you back to those early years; needless to say, it was a time when the theatre was filled to capacity. But sadly, no longer with us.
Alice’s Table this week will reminisce on some of our recent and not so recent festivals of the post war years – and mostly bringing music – all genres of music to our ears.
This latest festival will feature over three days in September – and there are some interesting names that will please a great number of music fans. I know I am looking forward to seeing Billy Ocean, and the return of The Real Thing and Tony Hadley (former lead singer of Spandau Ballet). I first interviewed him when he performed at the first European Special Olympics Games in Dublin back in 1985, and then again here when he first performed at the GMF. I know it dates me, but what can I say, I still enjoy his music… so roll on Sophie Ellis-Bextor and our homegrown best too, Melon Diesel.
Let us remind ourselves how it all began in 2012 – the inaugural festival with Jessie J headlining. I wrote a piece several years ago, if my memory serves me right, called ‘How Lucky are We’. How lucky to have seen some of the world’s best here on home soil – and now a return to what has always brought much joy to many reinforcing the Rock as a music hub of sorts.
As part of the Gibraltar Music Festival over the years the list can only be described as staggering. We have been witness to the Kings of Leon, Duran Duran, Stereophonics, Rita Ora, Emeli Sandé, Olly Murs, Texas, Level 42, La Oreja de Van Gogh, The Script, Maxi Priest, Roger Hodgson (Supertramp), Madness, Kaiser Chiefs, Little Mix, Third World, David Essex, Slade, Bryan Ferry, All Saints, Paul Young, Ricky Martin, Enrique Iglesias, Liam Gallagher, and Take That – and I could go on.
And away from the music festivals of recent years – let us not forget Sir Elton John, Santana, Jose Carreras and Andrea Bocelli. The Gibraltar Philharmonic Society has brought many top names in the classical world too – performers and orchestras as well.
As to other more recent festivals appealing to all tastes they have also come in the form of the Gibraltar World Music Festival and Gibraltar Electronic Festival just to mention two. In more recent years the food festival – Calentita, the Wine Festival and the Beer Festival all of which also provided music. There have been sporting festivals as well. And we cannot forget the festival that defines us as a cultural hub – the always popular Gibraltar Gibunco Literary Festival which is still going strong – after more than 10 years with its patron, Princess Anne. It was first staged in 2013 and has become Gibraltar’s flagship celebration of books, ideas, and conversation — bringing major authors, historians, journalists, actors and chefs and many more. And it is back in November. Even before the Gibraltar International Song Festival (1965 to 1976 and its later editions) took on their international status to become the festival to enter your songs.There had already been festivals - other kinds of festivals organised by the British Council via the established Calpe Institute back in the 1950s. But before we get to the festivals of 1949, 1950 and 1951 let me take you back to when our ancestors – parents and grandparents and probably great grandparents – were able to enjoy the delightful voice of one of the world’s greatest tenors Beniamino Gigli. The Theatre Royal was chocker block. It was 2 April 1947… and so the story goes the large windows of the theatre had to be opened wide so that the crowds that had gathered outside - in the piazzella below - could also hear and enjoy this first-class world tenor.
THE GIBRALTAR FESTIVAL OF 1949
Post World War II the main cultural event locally - the first of three – was the Gibraltar Festival of 1949 – which was held under the patronage of the then Governor General Sir Kenneth Anderson. The festival was organised from the premises of the Calpe Institute all under the direction of the British Council representative in Gibraltar - its director G.I. Morris who headed the festival committee. The festival provided a full programme of social and cultural activities.
The programme of events – a four-page programme – claimed “the colony will be the scene of the greatest and most comprehensive festival ever to be arranged in Gibraltar” and was expected to “provide entertainment on a lavish scale, designed to meet the tastes of all and sundry”.
The first event was on the Casemates – a place known for all main celebrations on the Rock. It was actually a march from Southport Gate via Main Street to Casemates by the then resident battalion – the Band and Drums of the 1st Battalion, The Fifth Fusiliers – sounds familiar? The first and second day of the festival also gave way to verbenas at the Alameda Gardens – illuminated and decorated for the occasion. The main attraction included the well-known flamenco dancers of the day: Conchita Borrego and Catalina Herrera, and singer Manuela Cordero – all from Sevilla. But the most important musical event that year was the participation of one of Britain’s most celebrated conductors: Sir Malcolm Sargent. He conducted the 70 strong Madrid Symphony Orchestra on 6, 8 and 10 July 1949 at the R.A.F. Hangar especially adapted for the occasion. Music by composers Wagner, Handel, De Falla, Sibelius, Beethoven and Elgar, and many others.
A ‘Festival of Gibraltar’ was celebrated in the summer of 1950 with a full programme of sporting events and concerts. There had been one in 1949 and there would also be one in 1951. A Fair was also held in the summer of 1951. In terms of population a census of the population was taken in July 1951 and showed a total resident civilian population of 22,848. This was an increase of 4,112 in the 20 years since the previous census.
What a scoop for the British Council and Gibraltar. Sir Malcolm Sargent at the time was the UK’s leading leader of choral and orchestral music. He was the host of the BBC Proms and would turn the Last Night of the Proms into the main event and broadcast it has become today. He championed major British works and was chief conductor of the BBC Proms from 1948 to 1966. He also conducted the BBC Symphony Orchestra and was co-founder of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. The concerts were hugely successful and a sell out every night. The 1949 Festival also brought together the – Combined Gibraltar Chorus – joining forces were the Calpe Choral Society, The King’s Chapel Choir, and the Police Dramatic and Operatic Society in conjunction with the Choir of the Cathedral of St Mary the Crowned. Held on the 9th – the Saturday night the soloists were headed by the well-known Spanish Baritone Marcos Redondo from Valencia who was mostly recognised for performing zarzuela. And there were also some well-known local names. Sopranos Bertina Canto, Marie Davis and Eileen Cochrane, and tenor Joseph Lagares. The concert included solos and duets with music by Verdi, Donizetti and Puccini. It was Bertina Canto who duetted with Marcos Redondo performing a duet from Tosca. Bertina Canto, later Bertina Garcia has featured on these pages in the past. The programme declared: “The Colony possesses potential singing resources which must surely compare very favourably with any place of this size in the world. These resources have been marshalled into a Choral Group capable of interpreting the most select programme and augmented by a number of soloists of marked ability who are taking part, and will spotlight this concert as an example of what the Colony can achieve”.
In other words – Gibraltar always punching above its weight especially in the arts.
The festival also presented a production of Shakespeare’s ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ in the gardens of The Convent. Here again the players included local names Carmen Teuma and her sister Maribel Teuma – who many of us will remember as Maribel Cumming and one of the voices of Radio Gibraltar in the 1970s. Other local names in this production included: Pepita Montegriffo, Marisa and Madilin Rowbottom, Mary Cardona, Julie Flower, Mercy Neish, and Ida Guerrero who performed as “Attendants on Titania” or as “Faries and Attendants to Oberon”.
The festival of 1949 included sports fixtures - with rowing regattas, swimming and water polo, tennis and cricket. Football – organised a ‘Triangular International’ event with Real Balompedica Linense, Algeciras Futbol Club and Gibraltar. The matches were played at the Gibraltar Sports Ground at North Front. Interestingly the festival also saw a Fire-fighting Competition and Display at the No. 2 Naval Ground (where the multi-story carpark is today) on Reclamation Road. This was carried out by the Combined Fire Services of Gibraltar.
The festival proved so popular that it returned the following year in 1950 and again in 1951.
1950 saw the return of the Madrid Symphony Orchestra with Clarence Raybould conducting. Raybauld was an English conductor, pianist and composer who conducted works ranging from musical comedy to operetta. In 1951 he was the first to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra in their first concert at the Royal Festival Hall. The soloist was Hungarian violinist Joseph Szietti. The Chronicle headlined its review ‘A Memorable Event’ stating that Szietti had scored a “triumph” and of the conductor reported: “Raybould is an unostentatious conductor, who by close and loving attention to detail, achieves highly satisfying performances”. That year the festival was opened by the Band of the 1st Regiment of the French Foreign Legion. The night also saw some Mallorcan dances in attendance. The Chronicle reported the following night under the headline ‘Grand opening night for the Gibraltar Festival’ that it was “non-stop for just over two hours, the International spectacle at the Victoria Stadium last night, certainly set off this year’s Gibraltar Festival with a bang – the biggest bang coming from a giant rocket which exploded overhead, extracting the droll comment from a lady spectator, that it was just ‘like the Sunset Gun’. The Band of the French Foreign Legion displayed a snap and precision, beautifully rounded off by the showmanship of the buglers, that roused real enthusiasm.”
That year there were more verbenas, children’s parties, sporting events which included cycling races, table tennis championships, football matches and cricket, and of course regattas. And if that were not enough there was a song and dance recital from Gibraltar students, a window-dressing display, an amusement park and a philatelic and photographic exhibition. Most of these activities were already promoted within the Calpe Institute.
MORE FESTIVALS
Over the years festivals have come and gone – but each decade built on previous achievements. And although international participation has always featured the festivals became more local with a larger participation from the community. In the 1960s came the Gibraltar Arts Festival. In fact, the first was held in 1961 – The Gibraltar Arts Festival included music through the Gibraltar Society for Musical Culture which brought to the Rock the Hungarica Philharmonica Orchestra. Theatre was introduced through the Gibraltar Drama Festival. There was a Book Exhibition at the Garrison Library, a Painting and Pottery Exhibition at the Calpe Institute. The American Festival Ballet performed at the Theatre Royal. There was an International Film Competition with the many cinemas presenting films – the Queen’s Cinema, the Rialto, and the Naval Trust Cinema. There was much music and dance with verbenas, and parties and dances.
Now here is the interesting part – prices for the concerts ranged from seven to 17 shillings for the international concert, seven to 12 shillings for events at The Convent, and five to 15 shillings for the ballet at the Theatre Royal. Season tickets were in three tiers: 50 shillings, 37 shillings and 25 shillings. In the Gibraltar Festival of 1962, Group 56 presented the play Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega. In later years came the Gibraltar May Festival and other events that have always presented the best of what Gibraltar can offer – and there are so many other events I could have been montioned.
Suffice to say we have been long at this game... with some great entertainment beyond our shores. But locals have always featured as festivals have come and gone – and they are still here to stay. For the moment enjoy this year’s music festival.
