Olive groves, markets, castles and impossible artefacts. A journey through contemporary creation, landscape and food.

Before the festival reaches its central days in Amposta, Eufònic will unfold a weekend that could only happen here, in the Terres de l’Ebre. An old olive oil mill transformed into a sound installation. A robotic organ in dialogue with an unpredictable pendulum. A tarot reading born from the stories of people of the sea. An olive grove turned into a stage. An edible dress made of wheat. The vibrations of olive trees engraved onto a resin disc. And, at the end of the journey, a castle overlooking the Ebro.

The journey begins on Thursday, 9 July, in Ulldecona, where Norwegian artist Siri Austeen will take over the Antic Molí d’Oli with “What Is Moved Moves”, an installation curated by Arnau Horta that the artist herself will activate using her singular saxopet. The following day, Friday 10 July, Amposta will unveil two new installations. At the Museu de les Terres de l’Ebre -yes, we’re back fourteen years later!- Barcelona-based artist and researcher Marta Royo will present “AMOC”, an installation combining digital art, poetic narrative and oceanographic research. At Lo Pati, Canadian artist Navid Navab will unveil one of the most fascinating works of this year’s edition, “Organism + Excitable Chaos”: a century-old pipe organ prepared robotically, seemingly breathing, vibrating and reacting to an automated pendulum as though it were a living organism. Later that evening, following the openings, Santiago Bartolomé will activate an inflatable temporary structure in Plaça Mari Chordà, transforming it into the setting for a performance that is shared, inhabitable and open to exploration.

But it is Eufònic Terra that will set the pace for the weekend. On the morning of Saturday 11 July, Amposta’s Municipal Market will become something more than a market. Among open stalls, conversations and locals doing their shopping, Amposta artist Astamera (Sara Porres) will work with rice as a material charged with memory, identity and tension. Marina Monsonís will read from her maritime tarot deck -born from a collective gathering previously held in La Ràpita- in a former fish stall, while Diara, one of the most distinctive emerging voices on the current scene, will perform alongside DJ Miss Behaving, who will provide the soundtrack to a vermouth gathering moving between afrobeat, disco, tropical grooves and electronics. All of this will unfold alongside tastings of DOP Baix Ebre-Montsià olive oil, vermouth from Batea and a rice dish prepared by Delta restaurant from Deltebre. In the afternoon, audiences will leave the asphalt behind and head into the olive groves of Pla la Bassa, in la Sénia. There, Sarah Misselbrook will activate a performance built around observation, gesture and presence, almost dissolving into the landscape itself. Shortly afterwards, and only a few minutes away, Molí la Vella will host clarinettist Teresa Noguerón from la Ràpita, presenting her acclaimed album “Vuit”, alongside Sociedad Síntrica Dodecafónica, a Barcelona-based band capable of taking post-rock into expansive, psychedelic and deeply physical territory. Wines from DO Terra Alta and tapas prepared by local chef Vanessa Bustos will complete an afternoon designed to be enjoyed without hurry.

On Sunday 12 July, Terra Alta takes over. Early in the morning, Natalia Carminati will appear in the main square of Horta de Sant Joan wearing an edible dress made from wheat and accompanied by a vinaigrette prepared with wild plants and DOP olive oil. Afterwards, a short drive will lead visitors to the beautiful Ermita de Santa Madrona in Arnes, where artist and environmental researcher Paula Bruna and musician /beyond/ will record the vibrations of olive trees directly onto a resin disc, transforming the landscape into material memory. The bright, daylight electronics of Barcelona-based producer Bofirax will provide momentum before the day flows naturally into a double DJ session, timed perfectly for vermouth hour, with local selectors Kryper and 106. The journey will culminate on Sunday afternoon in the church of the imposing Castle of Miravet, where Mallorcan artists Joana Gomila and Laia Vallès, joined by saxophonist Carles Medina, will activate Puput Lab, a meeting point for voice, words, synthesis and improvisation in one of the most spectacular settings along the Ebro. A weekend that proves that long before the festival’s main stages and central days arrive, Eufònic is already happening.