The museums become consolidated as the venue of festivals

Fifteen days ago it was the Film Festival, before it was the Poetry Festival, the Jazz and Sitges Next and this week it is the Creative Connections and the Catalunya i Futur congress. The Palau de Maricel is reinforced reception center for cultural festivals and, as in the Saturday congress, also as a setting for institutional and cultural initiatives of great importance.

Creative Connections celebrates its fifth edition as a proposal for cultural exchange between Catalonia and Ireland between Thursday and Sunday .During these four days, about 50 acts with different profile and format fill the agenda of Sitges, with the aim of bringing Irish culture closer .Among these acts, there is the recital that will be held on Saturday (at 5:00 pm) at the Golden Hall of the Palace of Maricel and which is entitled The four Celtic stations .This is a concert in which 25 Irish musicians will plsy in the Bray Comhaltas Ensemble, with the presence of the Irish Abbey theater company and actress Nuala Hayes. This is a play that will interpret The four Celtic stations , which have been specially developed for Creative Connections. The concert is priced at 5 euros.

In addition to this recital, the Catalan-Irish festival proposes other interesting cultural activities, such as folk concerts, theatrical performances, poetry recitals, gastronomic tastings or the casteller performance, which will be held on Saturday at 6 pm at the Cap de la Vila. More than 40 groups and artists - the majority from Ireland - participate in the festival.

This weekend, the Maricel Palace - in this case, the Blue Hall - also hosts a session Catalonia and Future participatory congress, organized by the Exigents.cat association.The delegate of the Generalitat in Madrid, the former councilor, Ferran Mascarell, will participate in the session on Saturday; the director of the Fundació Catalunya Cultura, Gemma Sendra; and the director of Sitges Museums, Vinyet Panyella, moderated by Eduard Carrillo. The event will be closed by the Councilor for Culture, Rosa Tubau.

The Participatory Congress, which began last May, aims to define in an open and participatory way issues such as constitutional principles or the electoral system in Catalonia, going through other issues of concern such as the productive structures that guarantee sustainability, the system educational or labor relations. Exigents.cat has programmed activities within the framework of the congress until May 2018 that can be consulted on www.exigents.cat .

These initiatives come after the Sitges museums and the Palau de Maricel have been an active venue for the 50th edition of the Sitges - International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia. The Red Night, the Sitges Bachanal, the Lovecraft exhibition and the days on the future of cinema in Catalonia, turned the headquarters of the Sitges Heritage Consortium in an active part of the Festival.