VALENCIA, SPAIN–This year's twelfth edition the "La Mar de Músicas" festival devoted special attention to South Africa. Cinema, art and literature have accompanied the 40 concerts that took place at Spain's southern city of Cartagena from June 30 to July 22. The concerts featured internationally relevant names from the guest country as well as stars and young artists from other continents. Once more, as in previous years, D.A.S. speakers and sound systems were on the stages, provided by "Telemag de Lorca, S.L.," in charge of providing sound reinforcement facilities for the major stages of the event. "Telemag" provided sound for the stages of the "Castillo Arabe" as well as for "Linterna del Parque Torres" which hosted the performances of famous South African artists such as Johnny Clegg, reagge living legend Lucky Dube, pianist Abdulla Ibrahim, the legenday voices of The Mahotella Queens, spectacular Soweto Gospel Choir or Jamaican reagge artist Ziggy Marley – the son of mythical Bob Marley, whose performance closed the festival.
The Aero 38A powered line array system was the star of the performances that took place at "El Castillo Arabe." The FOH system comprised six Aero 38A were flown at six meters from the ground per side of the stage, with a distance of 14 meters between the two towers, and a total of six Aero 218A were stacked on the floor as subwoofers.
Powered Compact 2 and Compact 218 Sub systems were used as sidefill, and for monitoring the stage eight powered SM series stage monitors models SM-12A and two SM-15A were used. For the "Linterna del Parque Torres" stage, the P.A. consisted of six Compact systems per stage side: three mid-high Compact 2 units and three low frequency Compact-18 Sub units. The P.A. was operated via a Crest Audio board with BSS and DBX processors and a Clark Tecnic equalizer. On the stage a board with Allen & Heath monitors and Klark Teknik processors was located.
In the photography section of this festival, it is worth mentioning the work of phtographers such as Obie Oberholzer, whose photograhs show the other side of South Africa, the Soweto revolt by Peter Magubanel, Guatemalan artist Oscar Gutiérrez who has photographed every South African musician and Carlos Tofiño who has documented the persecution of the Bostwana indigenous community. In the Video Art section works by William Kentridge and Geert Mul were screened, being Angel Haro the representant for painting – who shows his own particular view of South Africa.
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