Music Festivals in the 1960s

UID/EAT/00472/2013 SFRH/BD/103718/2014The beginning of television broadcasts in Portugal in September 1956 played an important role in the Portuguese musical environment. However, the quick technical advances associated with television would eventually enable the Hertezian connection between Portugal and Spain, which led to the creation of a new space, Iberovisão. In addition to Spain’s role as a bridge between Portugal and Eurovision broadcasts, the connection between the two neighbouring countries, which began in 1960, generated a new media space for cultural exchanges, which became visible through two important música ligeira festivals: the Festival da Canção de Benidorm and the Festival Hispano- Portugués de la Cancion del Duero, among other initiatives. The fact that Portugal and Spain lived under dictatorial political regimes leads us to believe that these festivals were, in addition to important cultural experiences associated with music, a form of affirmation of the two dictatorial regimes in an increasingly democratized Western Europe. Proof of this is the Declaration of December 15th, 1960 on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples of the United Nations (UN). Based on the analysis of the two mentioned music festivals, I highlight the importance that the technical novelties associated with television, linking Portugal and Spain (Iberovisão), had in the origin and development of the mentioned events, assuming them as spaces of cultural and ideological affirmation in the political context of the 1960s.publishersversionpublishe