Guitar matters across all these worlds
For 45 years, the city of Córdoba has gathered the world's guitar voices into a single July conversation, and this edition is no different — only wider. From the founder who planted the seed to the Memphis experimentalist who is rewriting what a bass can say, the 2026 festival reminds us that an instrument is never finished becoming itself. It is, at its heart, a meditation on continuity: how tradition and rupture are not opposites, but partners in the same long song.
- After 45 years, the Córdoba Guitar Festival faces the perennial tension of honoring its flamenco roots while reaching toward jazz fusion, indie rock, and avant-garde funk — and this edition leans into that tension rather than resolving it.
- The return of founder Paco Peña on opening night with 'Solera' gives the festival an emotional anchor, but the real disruption comes from Mononeon and Stanley Clarke, two bassists who challenge every assumption about what a guitar festival is supposed to sound like.
- Tribute concerts for Paco de Lucía and Enrique Morente — including the 30th anniversary of 'Omega' led by Lagartija Nick and Kiki Morente — risk the weight of grief becoming nostalgia, yet they also assert that the dead remain active participants in living music.
- Ticket sales open March 20, and the festival's multigenerational ambition — classical orchestras, indie pioneers Los Planetas, and a Manuel de Falla anniversary — positions Córdoba not as a museum of the guitar, but as its ongoing laboratory.
Córdoba's Guitar Festival turns 45 this July, and the city's culture delegate Isabel Albás has unveiled a program that stretches from flamenco's deepest roots to the outer edges of experimental funk. The lineup is, in effect, a portrait of everything the guitar — and its close relatives — has become.
The festival opens July 1 at the Gran Teatro with Paco Peña, the Córdoban guitarist who founded the event nearly five decades ago. His program, called Solera, carries the weight of a homecoming. Three days later, Los Planetas — the indie rock band that helped define Spanish alternative music in the 1990s — plays the Teatro de la Axerquía for the first time, led by Jota and guitarist Florent Muñoz.
The jazz programming is where the festival makes its boldest international statement. Stanley Clarke, who co-founded Return to Forever with Chick Corea and became the first bassist to headline major concert tours, arrives July 15 with his ensemble N4Ever. The following night, Mononeon — Memphis-born Dywane Thomas Jr., once Prince's bassist — brings his avant-garde funk-soul approach to a stage more accustomed to nylon strings.
The classical strand honors the 150th anniversary of Manuel de Falla's birth, with the Córdoba Orchestra and guitarist Juan Miguel Cañizares performing Falla's Noches en los jardines de España in a solo guitar arrangement. The Teatro Góngora hosts further classical evenings, including Rycardo Moreno and the Cardamom Trío with Linda Ahmad.
Two tribute concerts give the Axerquía its emotional core: Paco de Lucía Legacy on July 10, and Omega, 30 Aniversario the following night — a concert remembering Enrique Morente, led by Lagartija Nick and Morente's own son, Kiki. The Cathedral Chapter's Patio de los Naranjos opens its doors for an additional performance by the trio of Jovanovic, Rosenberg, and Markovic.
Tickets go on sale March 20 at 10 a.m. Albás described the festival's intention plainly: to build a space where every generation of guitar listener can find something that feels both familiar and new.
Córdoba's 45-year-old Guitar Festival has filled out its July calendar with a lineup that spans continents and genres—from the American jazz virtuoso Stanley Clarke to Spain's indie rock pioneers Los Planetas, from classical tributes to experimental funk. The announcement came this week from Isabel Albás, the city's culture delegate and president of the IMAE, the municipal institute overseeing the event.
The festival opens on July 1 at the Gran Teatro with Paco Peña, the Córdoban guitarist who founded the festival nearly five decades ago. Peña will perform a program called Solera, a homecoming of sorts for the man who established what has become one of Spain's most enduring cultural institutions. Three days later, Los Planetas takes the stage at the Teatro de la Axerquía—the first time the pioneering indie rock and pop band will perform at this venue. Led by vocalist and guitarist Juan Ramón Rodríguez Jota and guitarist Florent Muñoz, Los Planetas helped define Spanish alternative music in the 1990s and remain influential figures in the country's rock landscape.
The jazz programming reflects the festival's ambition to attract serious musicians and devoted listeners. Stanley Clarke, the American bassist and composer who revolutionized the role of electric bass in jazz fusion, arrives on July 15 with his ensemble N4Ever. Clarke's credentials run deep: he co-founded Return to Forever with Chick Corea and became the first bassist to headline major concert tours, effectively transforming how the instrument was perceived within jazz and funk circles. A day later, Dywane Thomas Jr.—known professionally as Mononeon—brings a more experimental approach. The Memphis-born bassist and composer, famous for his avant-garde funk-soul style and his distinctive colorful stage wear, spent time as Prince's bassist and represents a younger generation of virtuosos pushing the instrument into uncharted territory.
The classical programming honors two giants of Spanish guitar. On July 8, the Córdoba Orchestra performs with Juan Miguel Cañizares, the 2023 National Music Prize winner, who has arranged Manuel de Falla's Noches en los jardines de España for solo guitar—a fitting tribute as the festival marks the 150th anniversary of Falla's birth. The Teatro Góngora hosts additional classical performances, including Rycardo Moreno on July 6 and Cardamom Trío with Linda Ahmad on July 8, performing a concert called Cuando sale el sol.
Two tribute concerts anchor the Axerquía's programming. On July 10, Paco de Lucía Legacy honors the late flamenco guitarist whose influence shaped modern Spanish guitar. The following night, the festival presents Omega, 30 Aniversario, a concert dedicated to the memory of Enrique Morente, the legendary singer and guitarist. Lagartija Nick and Kiki Morente, Enrique's son, lead this ensemble. The Patio de los Naranjos, made available through the Cathedral Chapter's collaboration, will host a performance by the trio of Bako Jovanovic, Mozes Rosenberg, and Marko Markovic.
Ticket sales begin on March 20 at 10 a.m., with the exception of the Omega concert, which will go on sale slightly later. Albás emphasized that the festival aims to create a comprehensive survey of guitar music—blending emerging artists with established masters, inviting audiences of all ages to experience what has become an annual gathering of significance for the instrument and its practitioners.
Citações Notáveis
The festival aims to create a comprehensive survey of guitar music, blending emerging artists with established masters and inviting audiences of all ages.— Isabel Albás, culture delegate and IMAE president
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does a city like Córdoba keep a guitar festival alive for 45 years? What's the draw?
Córdoba has deep roots in guitar culture—it's not arbitrary. Paco Peña founded this festival, and he's still performing at it. That continuity matters. It's become a place where serious musicians want to play.
But the lineup this year seems deliberately mixed—Stanley Clarke, Los Planetas, classical tributes. Is that new?
The festival has always tried to span styles, but yes, this year feels intentional about it. They're not just celebrating the past. They're bringing in experimental bassists like Mononeon, indie rock bands. It's saying: guitar matters across all these worlds.
The tributes to Paco de Lucía and Enrique Morente—are those annual, or is there something specific happening this year?
They're part of the program, but the Morente concert especially feels like a living memorial. His son Kiki is performing. It's not dusty reverence. It's family and musicians keeping something alive.
What does it say that Stanley Clarke is coming to Córdoba in July?
It says the festival has reach. Clarke is a legend—he could play anywhere. The fact that he's there suggests the festival has credibility, resources, and an audience that understands what he represents. It's not a provincial booking.
The Falla concert—150 years since his birth. Is that why it's there?
Partly. But Cañizares arranging Falla for guitar is the real story. It's a classical musician engaging with a classical composer through the instrument the festival celebrates. It's thematic coherence, not just commemoration.