Sólo Flamenco are delighted to announce that we have been invited to participate in the Dún Laoghaire Festival of World Cultures for the second year running.

Once again we will have a stage performance followed by a busking set. The performance will take place on:

The extended show length means that we have an opportunity to invite some of our friends to join us on stage for the performance. We will be accompanied on the day by two special guest guitarists, Daniel Byrne and Lucas González.

We will update you with details of our busking spot as soon as we have them.

Today is a busy day for Sólo Flamenco. We are performing three shows at Waterford’s internationally acclaimed Spraoi Festival.

The festival, now in it’s 15th year, is an annual celebration of the performing arts with a particular focus on street theatre. Every year the festival plays host to a large variety of acts, from both Ireland and abroad. For more information on this year’s festival and pictures from previous years, visit their website.

Our performances will be at 2:15pm, 3:15pm and 4:30pm and will take place in Arundel Square, in the heart of the city. We’re very fortunate to be accompanied by Daniel Byrne, a very talented guitarist who some of you may remember from his performance at the National Concert Hall, supporting the Flamenco García tour.

In addition, we will be sharing the stage with Torann - an amazing percussion ensemble from Waterford - who will be playing two shows in Arundel Square this afternoon. We couldn’t hope for a more exciting contrast.

Earlier this year Sólo Flamenco were invited to perform at the
Samhlaí­ocht 2008 Easter Arts Festival.

The performance was billed as one of the highlights of the festival, which is held every year in Tralee, Co. Kerry.

We were joined on guitar by special guest Juan José Manzano Garcia, who accompanied us on a number of dances and also played some of his own pieces for the audience.

For pictures of the event, visit our galleries.

Sólo Flamenco kicked off 2008 by opening the Out To Lunch 2008 Festival in Belfast on Friday, 4th January.

Robert McMillen, the Irish Language Editor of the Irish News, interviewed Sólo Flamenco prior to the event to discuss their participation.

Read the full article in Irish here. A translation in English is also available here, courtesy of Mr. Michael “Butch” Power.

After their performance at the Black Box, Sólo Flamenco were interviewed for the BBC RADIO ULSTER programme Sounds Classical on 92-95FM, and were asked to say a few words about the history and culture of Flamenco.

The programme aired on Sunday 6 January 2008 at 8pm. Listen to a replay.

Sólo Flamenco have been invited to perform at the opening of the Out To Lunch 2008 Festival in Belfast on January 4, 2008.

For full details, click here.

Hi everyone,

We are pleased to announce that, starting on Wednesday 14 November, we will be performing every Wednesday night around 9pm at La Paloma, a nice little Spanish restaurant in a cosy corner of Temple Bar.

We performed at La Paloma on Sunday 11 November for the first time. Thanks Jeff for inviting us, we had a lot of fun! We had just finished a beautiful 3-day workshop with Marí­a La Serrana, but we forgot all about our sore feet as soon as we dragged our tablao out to start dancing.

The atmosphere is so nice at La Paloma, with its beautiful decorations and pictures on the wall it’s a little piece of Spain hidden in Temple Bar. So why not come enjoy a few tapas and see us perform!

La Encantada

What a weekend it’s been for Sólo Flamenco. We had a great two-day rehearsal with our mentor Felipe de Algeciras, and were invited by the García Flamenco School to join their first juerga taking place in the Polo Club in The Phoenix Park, Dublin.

The evening was organised by the school’s founder Paco Arrastro to celebrate the visit to Dublin of his good friend, the wonderful Salvador Andrades. The show opened with performances by Paco’s students. Then Salvador took to the stage and mesmerized everyone with his beautiful playing. The music continued for another half hour or so and then we stopped for food. Which reminds me, many thanks to Mary and The Polo Club for looking after us for the evening.

While we were eating, the carpet was rolled back to reveal a beautiful wooden floor, ideal for Flamenco footwork. Sólo Flamenco opened the second part of the evening with an impromptu performance of Felipe’s Tango de Málaga. Perhaps it was the fact Felipe himself supported us with palmas and jaleos, but we never felt so good performing and it showed in the audience reaction. The crowd cheered at every moment.

With the crowd now warm, Felipe took to the stage accompanied by his long time friend and collaborator Salvador and danced the house down with an improvised Bulerí­a that seemed to just grow and grow with every compás. When they finally finished, the crowd was wild and begging for more and local Flamenco teacher Jenny treated us to a lively Rumba. The band then started to play Sevillanas and Felipe danced in turn with Nathalie, Dominika, Jenny and Carina.

The dancing drew to a close at this point, the carpet was restored and Paco, Salvador and the other musicians treated us to an entertaining mix of Flamenco and Spanish tunes. But enough talk. Visit our galleries page to see some great pictures from the evening.

Paco, many thanks for organising such a great evening. We’re looking forward to the next one…

Just a brief reminder that Sólo Flamenco are performing at the Festival of World Cultures this coming Saturday.

Full details are on our flyer.