Un gran apetito for Bloomsday celebrations in Madrid
Bloomsday is a much-celebrated event in Spain, with activities, readings and music hosted across the country, in Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, La Linea de la Concepción, Logroño and Málaga.
2024 was a particularly special year for celebrations in Madrid, as the Bloomsday Society marked their 10th anniversary.
Founding member Sara Cantó worked tirelessly to put together a unique opera, Penelope´s Dream, with Spanish conductor and composer Pedro Halffter.
Held in the Ateneo de Madrid, the programme included soprano Ashley Bell, with Juan Carlos Garvayo and Pedro Halffter on piano, and stage direction by Antón Armendariz Díaz. The Irish Ambassador opened the evening to an audience of about 150 people followed by a reception with invited guests.
Bloomsday Festival
The Bloomsday Society also collaborated with an English language bookstore in Madrid, Desperate Literature, as well as Culture Ireland and Tourism Ireland, to organise a Bloomsday Festival on the day itself, 16 June.
Bookstore owners Terry and Charlotte coordinated a fantastic programme of readings and music with guests John Banville, Lisa Hannigan and Eimear McBride from Ireland, as well as Spanish journalist Marta Fernández.
Adding to the festivities was the third edition of Bloomsday Madrid-Dublin, a special walking route which included readings and recreations of passages from Joyce’s novels, as well as Irish music organised by Tourism Ireland and the Spanish association, Soy de la Cuesta.
Many attended dressed in Edwardian attire along the stops and readings took place at three well-known and emblematic places in Madrid: the Cuesta de Moyano, the Feria del Libro (Madrid Book Fair) and El Rastro (a popular Sunday street market).
Bloomsday readings and recipes
Food writer Berta Vías Mahou, co-author of the book Cocina de Autor, contributed recipes of great names in literature, amongst them James Joyce and stuffed cabbages. Spanish comedian Joaquín Reyes read a piece from Ulysses in Spanish on a vintage bed. There was no shortage of music, with a performance by the Irish singer and songwriter Lisa Hannigan.
The second stop on the route took place in the Feria del Libro, coinciding with the last day of the book fair. The last stop of Bloomsday Madrid-Dublin 2024 was at El Rastro where Spanish writer Violeta Gil closed with Molly Bloom´s famous monologue.
The appetite for Joyce’s Ulysses, and with it, Bloomsday celebrations, continues to grow in Spain, with new interest in the classic piece of literature and its connections to Ireland found along the way each year during the Bloomsday tours and events. The success of the 10-year anniversary means plans are already underway for Bloomsday 2025!