Cádiz Guitar Festival 2026: 13 free concerts on a first-come, first-served basis in Cádiz, Jerez, El Puerto and Rota

Thirteen free classical and flamenco guitar concerts, spread over two and a half weeks across four towns in the province. The first Cádiz Guitar Festival, dedicated to the Cádiz-born composer and guitarist Ángel G. Piñero, opens on Thursday 22 October at 20:00 at the Edificio Constitución 1812 of the Universidad de Cádiz, the former Aulario La Bomba, with the Italian Luca Romanelli, and runs until 8 November across eleven venues in Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota. Dates, venues and tickets are on the Cádiz Guitar Festival page.

The city of Cádiz hosts six concerts; Jerez and El Puerto, three each; and Rota, one. Many of the venues are not concert halls: there are two flamenco peñas, the courtyard of the Casino Gaditano, that of the Ateneo de Jerez, the parade ground of the Castillo de Luna and the Monasterio de San Miguel in El Puerto.

How to get in: free, no booking and first come, first served

The official website says the same thing on the page for each of the thirteen concerts: free entry until capacity is reached, on a first-come, first-served basis. There is no need to book or collect an invitation. Some reports on the launch, on 22 September, mentioned advance booking, but the festival has not set up any system for it, and the press release issued two days later about the El Puerto concerts already referred to first come, first served.

What has not been published is the capacity of each venue. As there is no way to guarantee a seat, the sensible thing is to arrive early, especially for the flamenco nights at the peñas and the two concerts at the Casino Gaditano. For any queries, the festival can be contacted at comunicacion@cadizguitarfestival.com.

Full Cádiz Guitar Festival programme by day

The calendar is split into two blocks. From Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 October there are seven concerts, and from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 November, the other six. In between, the festival pauses for eleven days.

First block: 22 to 25 October

• Thursday 22, 20:00. Luca Romanelli, opening concert. Edificio Constitución 1812, former Aulario La Bomba (UCA), Cádiz.
• Friday 23, 20:00. Ricardo Fernández del Moral. Peña Tomás El Nitri, El Puerto de Santa María.
• Friday 23, 22:30. Joni Jiménez and Antonio Reyes. Casino Gaditano, inner courtyard, Cádiz.
• Saturday 24, 20:00. Quinteto 1909. Colegio Oficial de Médicos, Cádiz.
• Saturday 24, 22:30. Josué Fonseca. Crisol, Monasterio de San Miguel, El Puerto de Santa María.
• Sunday 25, 12:00. Sohta Nakabayashi. Ateneo de Jerez, inner courtyard, Jerez de la Frontera.
• Sunday 25, 13:00. Fernando Espí. Ateneo de Cádiz, Cádiz.

Second block: 6 to 8 November

• Friday 6, 20:00. Angélica Rodríguez and Quartett HANA. Castillo de Luna, parade ground, Rota.
• Friday 6, 22:30. Jerónimo Maya. Peña La Buena Gente, Jerez de la Frontera.
• Saturday 7, 19:00. Júlia Farrés-Llongueras and José Luis Ruiz del Puerto. Museo Arqueológico de Jerez, Julián Cuadra room, Jerez de la Frontera.
• Saturday 7, 22:30. Alejandro Hurtado and Quartett HANA. Casino Gaditano, inner courtyard, Cádiz.
• Sunday 8, 11:00. Stanislav Steshenko and Cuarteto Chagall. Crisol, Monasterio de San Miguel, El Puerto de Santa María.
• Sunday 8, 13:00. María Esther Guzmán, closing concert. Espacio Fernando Quiñones, La Caleta, Cádiz.

Both Sundays have two morning sessions, but they do not work the same way. On 25 October, Nakabayashi starts in Jerez an hour before Espí in Cádiz, so seeing both is practically impossible. On 8 November there are two hours between Steshenko in El Puerto and Guzmán at La Caleta, enough time to catch both.

Two of the classical recitals also have a commemorative thread. Fernando Espí, who trained with José Tomás, presents his programme as a tribute to Manuel de Falla on the 150th anniversary of his birth, and María Esther Guzmán pairs Falla with Joaquín Rodrigo, whose birth was 125 years ago, alongside her own arrangements of Piazzolla and Bach.

The flamenco nights: Joni Jiménez and Antonio Reyes, Ricardo Fernández del Moral and Jerónimo Maya

The programme reserves the name Trasnoches flamencos for three events, and two of them feature award winners from the Festival del Cante de las Minas de La Unión. On Friday 23 you can see them back to back: at 20:00, at the Peña Tomás El Nitri in El Puerto, Ricardo Fernández del Moral, both singer and guitarist, who won the Lámpara Minera, the top prize at that competition. At 22:30, in the courtyard of the Casino Gaditano, guitarist Joni Jiménez, winner of the Bordón Minero for guitar in 2024, joins singer Antonio Reyes, whom the programme presents with his Giraldillo del Cante from the Bienal de Sevilla.

The third is Jerónimo Maya, on Friday 6 November at 22:30 at the Peña La Buena Gente in Jerez. The guitarist, a descendant of Ramón Montoya, presents Pureza y solera, a recital the organisers describe as free of embellishments and instrumental arrangements.

Outside that series is the only concert that brings together flamenco guitar and a string quartet. Alejandro Hurtado, another Bordón Minero winner, shares the stage on Saturday 7 November at the Casino Gaditano with the Quartett HANA. His programme alternates his own pieces in granaína, alegrías, farruca and seguiriya styles with Ramón Montoya's Rondeña, a piece by Niño Ricardo, Tárrega's Gran Jota and Piñero's Brisas de Cádiz.

A festival in memory of Ángel G. Piñero

Ángel G. Piñero (1932-2022) was a concert performer, teacher and, particularly in his later years, a composer. He played a guitar that the luthier Ignacio Fleta made specially for him, so that he could pluck the strings with his left hand without cutting the nails on his right. His catalogue includes six concertos for guitar and orchestra and nine works for guitar and string quartet, and several of his Andalusian dances are dedicated to Cádiz. Those dances, such as Brisas de Cádiz and Alegrías en el Puerto, recur in many of the published programmes: they are played by Quinteto 1909 in arrangements for five guitars, Josué Fonseca, Sohta Nakabayashi and the three concerts with string quartet, which offer a chance to hear the part of his work written for that line-up.

Five concerts make up the series of winners of the Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Clásica Ángel G. Piñero, which held its thirteenth edition this year: Luca Romanelli, who won it in 2019; Josué Fonseca; Sohta Nakabayashi, winner of the latest edition; Angélica Rodríguez and Stanislav Steshenko.

Behind it is the European Guitar Foundation, which created and produces the festival and is chaired by guitarist and cultural manager Vicente Coves, who is also director of the competition. It is the same foundation behind the Pepe Romero festival in Málaga, which this year closed with the Concierto de Aranjuez. Also involved in the organisation are the association that bears Piñero's name, chaired by his widow, the golfer Catherine Lacoste; the Ateneo de Jerez, which handles management; and the company Zertior. The town councils of the four municipalities and the Universidad de Cádiz are listed as collaborating institutions. At the launch, Lacoste described the festival as "a homecoming" for the composer, and Coves announced that the intention is to make it a regular event and take it to other towns in the province in future editions.

For anyone wanting to see what else is happening in the province over these months, the festivals in Cádiz listings bring together upcoming events.

Sources: official Cádiz Guitar Festival website (programme, individual concert pages, organisation and downloadable printed programme), consulted on 22 October 2026; Andalucía Información (22 and 24 September 2026) and Cadiznoticias (22 September 2026), on the festival launch.