Tarraco Viva faces its climax this weekend in Tarragona with more than a hundred activities spread across the Amfiteatre, Camp de Mart, Sala del Sarcòfag, and Moll de Costa. The festival reaches its final stretch under the slogan Why Rome? and concentrates some of its central events between today, Saturday, and tomorrow.
The edition also coincides with a change at the helm of the event. Magí Seritjol retires as director after twenty-eight years and hands over the direction to Julio Villar just as the festival concludes a program that not only revolves around Rome but also incorporates content on Egyptian and Etruscan civilizations.
The Amfiteatre hosts the premiere outside Italy of Dies in arena today and tomorrow
One of the main events will be the show Dies in arena. Roman justice, the people, and the gladiators are represented in the Amfiteatre with the support of the Italian group Ars Dimicandi. There will be sessions today and tomorrow at 10:30 AM and 12:00 PM.
The production leaves Italy for the first time after its debut in the Roman Colosseum and its subsequent performance in the amphitheater of Pozzuoli, in the Campania region. The staging places the relationship between justice, popular spectacle, and the figure of the gladiator at its center.
Later in the afternoon, the same role of gladiators as an instrument of power will be analyzed today, Saturday, at 5:00 PM in the Camp de Mart auditorium, in one of the reflection sessions included in the final stretch of the festival.
Camp de Mart concentrates reenactments and workshops from 10:00 AM
From 10:00 AM, Camp de Mart will host historical reenactments, military strategies, role-playing games, and family activities. The program includes children's workshops on mosaic design and ceramic lamp making.
The expansion of content will also be noticeable in other areas of the event. Tarraco Viva has extended its programming to Egyptian and Etruscan cultures and has set up the Taberna Libraria for the sale of specialized bibliography on ancient history.
The Sala del Sarcòfag will host colloquiums over the weekend on eclipses and astronomy in antiquity, the legacy of Roman gastronomy, the city-state of Epidauros, and the necessity of humanism.
Tomorrow's closing ceremony will mark the end of Magí Seritjol's twenty-eight years of direction
In Seritjol's farewell, one of the phrases he has left in this edition of the festival is also crossed. The director has thus summarized the evolution of the project he has led for almost three decades.
"I have a boat and I wanted a fleet" - Magí Seritjol, director of the Tarraco Viva festival
After his retirement, Julio Villar will assume the direction of the event. The handover comes as Tarraco Viva maintains its focus on the dissemination of the ancient world and, at the same time, opens its focus to other civilizations present in this edition.
The closing ceremony, titled Why Rome? will be held tomorrow starting at 6:00 PM in Tinglado 1 of Moll de Costa.