Starlite Festival - Marbella
The Starlite Festival is a two month-long music and cultural event held in late June and July and August at the Cantera de Nagüeles, in Marbella. It is now established as one of the important annual social and entertainment events in Spain.
Contemporary music and dance festivals in Andalucia
Starlite Festival 2023
Starlite Festival 2023 was held at the Cantera de Nagüeles, Marbella between Wed 21st June and Tue 2nd September 2023. Twenty auditorium concerts were announced in autumn 2022 for Summer 2023 including international artists such as Lionel Richie, Rod Stewart, Gypsy Kings, Norah Jones, Anastasia, and Zaz. Another twenty, mainly Spanish acts but including Tom Jones, Iggy Pop and Christopher Cross were announced in the Spring of 2023 and the remainder making a toral of 56 were announced on individual basis up to early May.
Lionel Richie finally returned on 6th July 2023. His concert was postponed in 2020 and later rescheduled for 26th July 2022 but this was also cancelled. Anastasia's concert was rescheduled from 2022 to 12 July 2023.
2023 Artists line up:
| Artists | Date |
|---|---|
| Yusuf/Cat Stevens | Wed 21st June 2023 |
| Pablo López | Fri 23rd June 2023 |
| India Martinez | Sat 24th June 2023 |
| Mochael Bolton | Fri 30th June 2023 |
| Fito Paez | Sat 1st July 2023 |
| Sebastián Yatra | Wed 5th July 2023 |
| Lionel Richie | Thu 6th July 2023 |
| Seal 30th Anniversary Seal I and II | Fri 7th July 2023 |
| Gypsy Kings featuring Nicolás Reyes | Sat 8th July 2023 |
| Tom Jones | Mon 10th July 2023 |
| Anastasia | Wed 12th July 2023 |
| Marco Antonio Solís | Thur 13th July 2023 |
| Ricky Martin Symphonic | Fri 14th July 2023 |
| Ricky Martin Symphonic | Sat 15th July 2023 |
| Ruben Blades with Roberto Delgado Big Band | Mon 17th July 2023 |
| Ludovico Einaudi | Tue 18th July 2023 |
| Melindi | Wed 19th July 2023 |
| Natalia Lacunza & Belen Aguilera | Thur 20th July 2023 |
| Rod Stuwart | Fri 21st July 2023 |
| Antonio Orozco | Sat 22th July 2023 |
| David Bispal | Mon 24th July 2023 |
| Mika | Wed 26th July 2023 |
| Norah Jones | Thu 27th July 2023 |
| Malu | Mon 24th July 2023 |
| Andrés Calamaro | Sat 29th July 2023 |
| Carlos Rivera | Mon 31th July 2023 |
| Jorge Blass | Tue 1st August 2023 |
| Iggy Pop | Wed 2nd August 2023 |
| Sofía Ellar and Pignoise | Thur 3rd August 2023 |
| Farruquito, Israel Fernández & Diego del Morao | Fri 4th August 2023 |
| Zucchero | Sat 8th August 2023 |
| Zaz | Mon 7th August 2023 |
| Marlon and Alvaro de la Luna | Tue 8th August 2023 |
| Sara Baras | Wed 9th August 2023 |
| Eros Ramazzotti | Thur 10th August 2023 |
| Christopher Cross | Sat 12th August 2023 |
| Luis Fonzi | Mon 14th August 2023 |
| Taburete | Tue 15th August 2023 |
| Wilco | Wed 16th August 2023 |
| Antonio José | Thur 17th August 2023 |
| Pablo López | Fri 18th August 2023 |
| Vincente Amigo | Sat 19th August 2023 |
| Miguel Rios | Mon 21st August 2023 |
| Whitney - Queen of the night | Tue 22nd August 2023 |
| Black eyed peas | Wed 23rd August 2023 |
| Rafael | Fri 25th August 2023 |
| Lola Indigo | Fri 25th August 2023 |
| Victor Manuael | Sat 26th August 2023 |
| Carlos Lastre | Mon 28th August 2023 |
| Pimpinela | Tue 29th August 2023 |
| David Bispal | Wed 30th August 2023 |
| Monica Naranjo | Thur 31st August 2023 |
| Juanes | Fri 1st September 2023 |
| Melinde | Sat 2nd Septemeber 2023 |
History
The first use of the former Puerto Banus stone quarry site, situated above Marbella, was in 1983. Alfonso Hohenlohe, who founded the Marbella Club Hotel, and singers Julio Iglesias and Plácido Domingo, decided to create the Auditorio de Marbella open-air auditorium, and to found an internationally-renowned music festival. They held a successful Tenors concert, however the annual festival didn't happen. David and Elizabeth Brockman did try and revive it with the Festival International de Music Marbella in 1989. The quarry was then left abandoned for 23 years.
In 2012 the quarry site was cleaned up and a new auditorium constructed for the inaugural Starlite Festival. It has been held annually ever since and grown to become on of Spain's leading music festivals. Over the years Enrique Iglesias, Elton John, Lenny Kravitz, Lionel Richie, Andrea Bocelli, Ricky Martin, Tom Jones, Pet Shop Boys, Alejandro Sanz, Eros Ramazzotti, Luis Fonsi, Plácido Domingo and Anastacia have all played. The 2017 edition was overshadowed by a late license dispute with the Marbella town Hall, and 'Marbella' was removed from the Starlite Festival name and logo. The Lounge concept was subsequently dropped in favour of Sessions stage and VIP areas to avoid alegations of unfair competing with Marbella nightclubs. Due to the nature of the open air all-seated venue the Starlite festival was able to continue in Summer 2020 and 2021 albeit with social distancing few international performers.
A parallel event, the Starlite Gala, a star-studded charity concert and dinner which started in 2010 at villa Padierna Hotel and moved to the present venue, usually takes place on second Saturday in August, and is led by Antonio Banderas.
All editions of Starlite festival
Line up and notes about the other editions of the Starlite festival:
