Cádiz Guitar Festival

Cádiz Guitar Festival, whose official name is Festival Internacional de Guitarra Ángel G. Piñero de Cádiz, holds its first edition from 22 October to 8 November 2026 with 13 free concerts spread across Cádiz, Jerez de la Frontera, El Puerto de Santa María and Rota. It has no site of its own and no festival pass: each concert is a standalone event at one of its eleven venues, and entry is without booking until capacity is reached.

Classical guitar takes up most of the calendar, with a clear common thread: the Cádiz-born composer Ángel G. Piñero, who gives his name to the festival and to an international guitar competition whose winners headline five of the thirteen events. Flamenco accounts for four concerts, and three of them are given by guitarists or cantaores (flamenco singers) who have won awards at the Festival del Cante de las Minas in La Unión.

2026 programme: two runs, in October and November

The calendar is split into two blocks separated by eleven days without concerts: seven events from Thursday 22 to Sunday 25 October and six from Friday 6 to Sunday 8 November. On Fridays and Saturdays there are always two concerts, one early in the evening and another at 22:30, and always in different cities.

22 to 25 October

• Thursday 22, 20:00. Luca Romanelli, opening concert. Edificio Constitución 1812 (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, 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, Jerez de la Frontera.
• Sunday 25, 13:00. Fernando Espí. Ateneo de Cádiz, Cádiz.

6 to 8 November

• Friday 6, 20:00. Angélica Rodríguez and Quartett HANA. Castillo de Luna, 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, Jerez de la Frontera.
• Saturday 7, 22:30. Alejandro Hurtado and Quartett HANA. Casino Gaditano, 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.

Catching two concerts on the same day means allowing for the journey between cities. On Sunday 25 it is practically impossible: Nakabayashi starts in Jerez at 12:00 and Espí, in Cádiz, at 13:00. On Sunday 8, by contrast, there are two hours between the concert in El Puerto and the closing concert at La Caleta.

Free entry, no booking, first come first served

All concerts are free. The official website states it on each concert's page: entry until capacity is reached, on a first-come, first-served basis, with no booking or invitation required. At the launch on 22 September, advance booking was mentioned, but the festival has not set up any system for it.

What has not been published is the capacity of each venue, and several are not concert halls: two peñas flamencas (flamenco clubs), two inner courtyards, a museum and the parade ground of a castle. For the flamenco nights and the two concerts at the Casino Gaditano, it is advisable to arrive in good time. Queries are handled at comunicacion@cadizguitarfestival.com.

Eleven venues in four cities

Cádiz hosts six concerts at five venues. The opening concert takes place at the University of Cádiz's Edificio Constitución 1812, the former Aulario La Bomba, at paseo de Carlos III, 3. The inner courtyard of the Casino Gaditano, at plaza de San Antonio, 15, is used twice, for two nights of flamenco guitar. The city's line-up of venues is completed by the Colegio Oficial de Médicos, the Ateneo de Cádiz and the Espacio Fernando Quiñones, at La Caleta, where the festival closes.

Jerez de la Frontera has three events, in the courtyard of the Ateneo de Jerez, the peña La Buena Gente and the Julián Cuadra hall of the Museo Arqueológico. El Puerto de Santa María adds another three: one at the peña Tomás El Nitri and two at Crisol, in the Monasterio de San Miguel, at calle Virgen de los Milagros, 27. Rota has a single concert, in the parade ground of the Castillo de Luna.

What you will hear: the Piñero competition, quartets and flamenco

The series of winners of the Concurso Internacional de Guitarra Clásica Ángel G. Piñero brings together Luca Romanelli, who won it in 2019 and opens the festival; Josué Fonseca; Sohta Nakabayashi, winner of the thirteenth and most recent edition; Angélica Rodríguez and Stanislav Steshenko. Piñero's Andalusian dances, such as Brisas de Cádiz and Alegrías en el Puerto, feature in most of the published programmes, including that of Quinteto 1909, who play them in arrangements for five guitars.

Three concerts pair guitar with string quartet, a line-up for which Piñero wrote nine works: Angélica Rodríguez and Alejandro Hurtado with Quartett HANA, and Steshenko with Cuarteto Chagall. Two recitals also mark the anniversary of Manuel de Falla, who was born in Cádiz 150 years ago: Fernando Espí, who trained with José Tomás, devotes his programme to him, and María Esther Guzmán combines him with Joaquín Rodrigo and her own arrangements of Piazzolla and Bach.

Flamenco has its own series, Trasnoches flamencos, with three events: Ricardo Fernández del Moral, a cantaor and guitarist who has won the Lámpara Minera; guitarist Joni Jiménez, winner of the Bordón Minero in 2024, with cantaor Antonio Reyes; and Jerónimo Maya, a descendant of Ramón Montoya, with a recital that the organisers present as free of instrumental arrangements. Outside that series, Alejandro Hurtado, also a Bordón Minero winner, is the only one to combine flamenco guitar and string quartet.

Ángel G. Piñero and who is behind the festival

Ángel G. Piñero (1932-2022) was a concert performer, teacher and composer. His catalogue includes six concertos for guitar and orchestra, and several of his dances are dedicated to Cádiz. At the festival launch, his widow, the golfer Catherine Lacoste, who chairs the association that bears his name, described it as «a homecoming» for the composer.

The festival is created and produced by the European Guitar Foundation, chaired by guitarist Vicente Coves, who is also its director. 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 Ateneo de Jerez, which handles management, and the company Zertior, with support from the councils of the four cities and the University of Cádiz. At the launch, Coves said the intention is to keep the festival going and take it to other towns in the province.

The rest of the events in the province are listed in the festivals in Cádiz listings.