Detail - Way of Saint James in Galicia: official web

21/Aug/2017

The English Route will be filled with theater and music over the next few weeks with Turismo de Galicia's "Vive o Camiño" program.

Today, Nava Castro presented the programming intended for pilgrims and for the residents of the 18 town halls along this route, which is becoming more relevant by the day.
In addition to the new play Dos en el Camino (Two on the Route) and the concerts by Caxade, there will be entertainment in the town halls and near the hostels in August and September.
At this time there are many initiatives underway to improve the English Route, which is the focus of much of this year's Master Plan for the Way of St. James.

Ferrol, 21 August 2017

Today in Ferrol, the director of Turismo de Galicia, Nava Castro, presented the schedule for "Experience the Way", an initiative to promote and enhance the English Route that will, over the next few weeks, fill the streets and squares of the 18 towns that make up this route in the province of A Coruña with music and theater.

Over the next two months, this cultural program will be used to convey Jacobean values among pilgrims and Galicians alike, as both groups will be able to enjoy Experience the Way for free. This program will serve to highlight the surging English Route, a path that has been traveled by 7,600 people so far this year, making it the fifth most popular. "The English Route is becoming more important, which is why we at Turismo de Galicia are devoting a great deal of effort and investments to it", stated Nava Castro.

Starting this Wednesday, and through August and September, "Experience the Way" will unleash the spirit of the Routes through plays and music. On Wednesday, starting at 8 pm, the Muelle de Curuxeiras in Ferrol will host the opening of the play Dos en el Camino, starring Fran Rei and Isabel Risco, directed by Avelino González and written by Roi Vidal and Xurxo Barcala. The same stage will then provide the setting for a concert by Caxade, a personal folk-pop project from Alonso Caxade.

Also, along the same lines as Dos en el Camino, Fran Rei and Isabel Risco will be putting on a show of their own creation in both the town halls and in the vicinity of certain hostels, during which they will interact with the residents and pilgrims at those locations. In this show, Athanasius and Theodore, the two disciples of James who took his remains by sea to Galicia, are lost after traveling several centuries through time. While they are surprised by modern-day life, they also realize that the essence of the Way of St. James, the nature, the landscapes and the monuments, has not changed.

Investments in the English Route.

Nava Castro recalled some of the investments made this year in the English Route, which are included in the Master Plan for the Way of St. James, the roadmap containing all the initiatives and activities planned as we look forward to Xacobeo 2021. The plan also considers the new reality of the route, its sustainable growth and its constant internationalization.

This plan devotes 2017 to the English Route and the Fisterra-Muxía Route. In the case of the former, work is now underway to improve signposting in preparation for new official boundaries being defined from Ferrol and A Coruña to Bruma, and from there to Santiago de Compostela. There are also plans to open a new hostel in O Poulo, in the municipality of Ordes, which is still in its initial phase.

In parallel with the facilities and maintenance, work is also ongoing to promote activities among schoolchildren, carried out alongside cultural programs like "Experience the Way". In all, over 1.4 million euros will be spent this year.

The schedule for Experience the Way is as follows:

Ferrol, 23 August, 7 pm, Dock of Curuxeiras

Neda, 24 August, 7 pm, Seafront Promenade in Xuvia

Cabanas, 27 August, 8 pm, Areal Park

Fene, 28 August, 8 pm, Town Hall Square

Pontedeume, 29 August, 8 pm, Children's Park in the Seafront Promenade

Carral, 30 August, 6:30 pm, Campo da Feria

Paderne, 31 August, 8 pm, Chantada (Municipality of Souto)

A Coruña, 5 September, 8 pm, Méndez Núñez Gardens

Culleredo, 6 September, 8 pm, Europa del Burgo Plaza

Cambre, 7 September, 8 pm, Igrexa Park Auditorium

Betanzos, 8 September, 8 pm, Hermanos García Nogueira Plaza