• The major musical and theatrical production Attindamana will bring together more than 500 artists, connecting cultural roots with contemporary creation
• Hundreds of students from schools in 15 municipalities across the island will take part in the project La Isla de Mi Vida Escolar y Familiar

The Cabildo de Gran Canaria is reinventing and expanding the spirit of the Canariona music event under the name Festival La Isla de Mi Vida, which will once again celebrate Canary Islands Day and the expression of the island’s cultural diversity on 22 and 29 May, bringing together roots and contemporary vision. This was announced today during its presentation by the island president, Antonio Morales, accompanied by the Councillor for Economic Development, Minerva Alonso, and artists Víctor Batista and Belén Álvarez, known as Lajalada.
“The Festival La Isla de Mi Vida will bring together most of the active groups and creators on the island of Gran Canaria in an original large-scale production,” Morales said. “It will also extend to folk activity in schools and municipal music schools,” he added. “This is a more complex organisation, but one that will allow the participation of the vast majority of groups, artists, teachers, families and municipalities linked to popular music,” he emphasised.

“I would like to thank the teams from the Department of Economic Development, Infecar as organising body, Fedac, the Presidency Department, the production company Una Hora Menos, and the artists joining us today on behalf of the hundreds of people involved in Festival La Isla de Mi Vida,” the president of the Cabildo said.

The Festival’s main event will take place on 29 May in Plaza de Santa Ana, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, with free admission. Following the parade, which will begin at 7:30 p.m. in Parque de San Telmo with the Banda de Firgas and the Papahuevos, the main highlight of the programme will begin at 8:30 p.m.: the musical and theatrical show Attindamana — The sound of a people, the heartbeat of an island.
The president explained that Attindamana is a large-format production involving more than 500 artists, conceived “as a profound and contemporary tribute to the identity of the island’s 21 municipalities”. The project is directed by a collective creative team working to build connections between different artists. This core team includes Mario Vega, Belén Álvarez LAJALADA, Víctor Batista, Ner Suárez, Manuel Abrante, Ruth Sánchez and Javier Cerpa.
“Attindamana stands as an ambitious and determined commitment to a fundamental goal: to work on a new and lasting repertoire for Canarian popular music,” Antonio Morales explained. “Beyond a one-off event, it is an investment in future heritage, creating a legacy of 21 songs that will become part of the songbook of our land, adding to the foundations of our popular music so that they can endure over time,” he noted.

“By naming this show Attindamana, we are connecting our oldest roots with contemporary creation. We are saying that tradition is not a museum piece, but a living process. Attindamana laid the foundations for a new social structure in aboriginal society. Attindamana is the title this cultural milestone deserves, so that the Festival is remembered not only as a concert, but as the moment when Gran Canaria looked to its past in order to compose its future,” he stated.
Attindamana is, ultimately, one of the largest gatherings of local artistic talent linked to an island-wide cultural event. It will involve, among others, the Gran Canaria Philharmonic Orchestra, Parranda Araguaney, Umiaya, Mujeres D, Raíces Atlántikas, Los Serenquenquenes, folk groups, municipal collectives and more than forty vocal and instrumental performers.

The night of 29 May will close with the exclusive premiere of the new edition of After Hours: The Mixtape. This project is led by DJ Saot ST, a renowned producer and filmmaker who has devoted his career to promoting young talent from the islands within urban culture.
La Isla de Mi Vida Escolar y Familiar

One week earlier, on Friday 22 May, Plaza de San Rafael in Vecindario will host, also with free admission, a major celebration of children’s and young people’s folklore, with schools taking part in the morning and music schools in the afternoon.
“The project La Isla de Mi Vida Escolar y Familiar was created as a natural extension of the celebration of our identity, with the firm aim of placing traditional music at the heart of everyday learning,” Antonio Morales said. The school festival will bring together more than 650 students from primary, secondary and special education schools, representing the diversity of 15 municipalities across the island.
“This initiative is proposed as part of the Festival La Isla de Mi Vida 2026, not only to highlight the Canarian content taught in classrooms, but also to transform that knowledge into a shared experience. By taking music out of schools and bringing it into the public square, we turn folklore into a tool for social cohesion and generational pride,” he said.