Environmental advocacy group hosts Jazz Festival for the Guadiana

Portuguese fusion-jazz band Mr. Ze, featured performers at the Pura Vida Foundation's Jazz Festival for the Guadiana.

The Pura Vida Foundation, an environmental advocacy group, is organizing a travelling Festival of Jazz in the Lower Guadiana region, which forms the border between Andalucia and Portugal, from  May 7th to promote the designation of the Guadiana as a nature park.

The Pura Vida Foundation said in a press statement that it has invited the group Mr. Ze, who will perform pieces from their first album, ‘Muito café’, which is full of folk melodies, sophisticated harmonies and intriguing arrangements.

The festival will begin May 7th at the bar Alcaraván in Ayamonte, Andalucia, at the mouth of the Guadiana. On May 8th, Mr. Ze will perform at the Chapel of Puerto de la Laja, in the heart of the future nature park. The Festival will end in Seville on the 9th, on the River Guadalquivir.

The foundation is encouraging both jazz lovers and defenders of the environment to participate in the festival, which aims to raise consciousness of the need to protect the Lower Guadiana.

The foundation’s press statement points out that the Andalucia government has been considering granting protected status to the region since late 2009, when the Minister for the Environment, Cinta Castillo, initiated studies of the plan. In recent days, Castillo’s successor, Jose Juan Diaz Trillo, confirmed the launch of a ‘bottom-up’ dialogue to hear all views of those involved in the project.

Pura Vida stressed the need to seek the involvement of social partners to promote the implementation of a protected zone, which it says would not only ensure the ecological conservation of the area, but also promote sustainable socio-economic development. 

John Grimmett

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