Big names and musical diversity at new Ibero-American Music Festival at marina on the coast

Benalmádena marina will host the first Ibero-American Music Festival, Sol de Plata (silver sun), on Saturday 12 July, an event that will create a cultural and musical bridge between the Río de la Plata and the Costa del Sol. Organised by the Malaga-based company Brisa music management and the Almeria-based Crash Music, the festival will present performances by several renowned artists from the world of Latin pop and rock music.

A main performance stage will be located in the marina, along with an area for the food trucks, rest zones and leisure spaces to "enhance the overall festival experience".

More than 50,000 Argentinians and Uruguayans currently live in Spain, with a significant presence on the Costa del Sol. The organisers pointed out that Benalmádena and Malaga are key hubs for this community, with a growing calendar of cultural events that serve to musically unite two continents. It is for this reason that the idea of creating a festival of this nature materialised. The first major festival dedicated to Ibero-American music to be held in the province, organisers said the festival is centred around the idea of "two shores" - the Costa del Sol, and Río de la Plata, which forms part of the border between Argentina and Uruguay.

The name of the event derives from the sun, a symbol found on both the Argentine and Uruguayan flags and a hallmark of the Malaga coastline; and silver, referring to a river that geographically separates two countries.

The festival will bring together prominent names representing the musical diversity of the Río de la Plata, including Alejo Stivel, a key figure in Hispanic rock who has been described as "a living legend of Latin music". The founder of Tequila, an Argentinian-Spanish rock band active during the 1970s and 80s, Stivel has clocked up numerous hits as a solo artiste and is considered a reference point in the Argentinian pop-rock scene.

He will be joined by Zoe Gotusso, one of the most outstanding emerging artists in today's Argentine music scene. Renowned for her lively pop and bosa nova compositions, she was chosen as the opening act for Coldplay for their dates in Argentina during their Music of the Spheres Tour in 2022.

Nafta will bring their unusual blend of rhythm and blues to the stage, a ten-piece band that formed in Argentina in 2016.

The band has since developed what is described as "a sound universe", which combines elements of rhythm and blues and hip hop. They released their debut album in 2019, which was nominated in the Best Concept Album category at the Premios Gardel in Argentina the same year.

No Te Va Gustar (NTVG), considered a cornerstone of Uruguayan rock, will perform the hits from their more than 30-year career. The band started as a quartet, although over the years other musicians joined the band, which began to experiment with other musical styles like reggae, ska and murga.

Other artists due to perform are El Kuelgue, whose performance blends theatre, humour and music and relies on audience interaction; Ciclonautas; a Spanish-Argentinian rock band whose powerful music blends Anglo-Saxon rock, Spanish urban rock and Argentinian rock; and singer, songwriter and actress Guada, originally from Buenos Aires but who is now based in Spain, whose poetic songs ride the line between folk and indie, making her a favourite on the Spanish music scene.

Tickets for the festival, which cost 48 euros, are available from www.soldeplatafestival.com