Guitarres de Formentera returns to Sant Ferran this weekend for its 17th edition, bringing three days of live music, guitars and blues- and rock-inspired sounds to Formentera from Friday, September 11, to Sunday, September 13.
The festival’s two main concert nights will take place at the Sant Ferran church square, where eight bands will perform across Friday and Saturday. The event will conclude on Sunday with its traditional jam session at Sa Panxa, also in Sant Ferran.
Two nights of rock, blues and guitar-driven music
The festival gets underway on Friday at 10 p.m. with Swiss band Okay Boomers, who will share the stage with festival organisers Ekki Hoffmann and Ignacio Simó for a special farewell tribute to drummer Pierre Alain Delaunoy. After a long and successful career, Delaunoy is stepping away from the stage.
The evening will continue with Jonás Molina Band, led by Madrid-born guitarist and singer Jonás Molina, regarded as one of the prominent names in Spain’s current blues scene. His repertoire blends original material with 1950s electric blues, jump blues, West Coast blues, swing and boogie woogie.
The third act of the night will be ZZRock, an Ibiza-based band formed in 2022 as a tribute to ZZ Top. The trio — Richard Parker, David Mascaró and Simon Day — recreates both the distinctive look and powerful sound of the legendary Houston band.
Closing Friday’s programme will be Guille Wheel & The Waves, a Mallorca-based group fronted by Guillermo Borràs. The band emerged following his time with The Wheels and draws heavily on British and American rock and pop from the 1960s and 1970s, with psychedelic influences adding another dimension to their sound.
Saturday brings four more bands to Sant Ferran
The music continues on Saturday, September 12, from 10 p.m., with The Napkin Band opening the second night of concerts.
They will be followed by Sgt. Pepe’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, a familiar name at Guitarres de Formentera. The group has appeared at previous editions of the festival, performing its own takes on songs by The Beatles.
Next up will be Smoke, another band with a long-standing connection to the Sant Ferran festival. The group was also part of the lineup for the event’s 10th anniversary in 2018.
The Saturday programme will close with Chimichurri, a band originally formed in Formentera and currently featuring Argentine guitarist and singer José Rulo, bassist Mariano Menteguiaga and drummer David Barona.
Their repertoire combines original songs with rock, soul and funk covers, while the group itself has been closely associated with Guitarres de Formentera for more than a decade and has performed at several editions of the festival.
Guitarres de Formentera closes with a Sunday jam session
The festival will move to a different setting on Sunday, September 13. From 9 p.m., Sa Panxa, the Sant Ferran restaurant and live-music venue, will host the traditional closing jam session.
The session brings together musicians from different bands and musical backgrounds on the same stage, preserving one of the defining features of Guitarres de Formentera and providing a relaxed finale to the three-day event.
With its combination of rock, blues, soul, funk and guitar-driven live music, the 17th edition of Guitarres de Formentera once again turns Sant Ferran into a meeting point for music lovers on Formentera.
