The solo project of Lanzarote musician and producer Ale Acosta provides the grand finale for the first night of Phe Festival 2025, where the bands Nada Surf, Cycle, and Dorian set the pace on the main stage.
The tenth edition of Phe Festival 2025, which is being held this weekend in the Tenerife municipality of Puerto de la Cruz, closed its first day in the best possible way with a Canary Islands artist, musician and producer Ale Acosta, who brought his solo project to Puerto de la Cruz., The Future, where the traditional music of the Canary Islands, from his native island and others, are the starting point for drawing a new soundscape laced with electronics and a danceable pulse.
A tremendous triumph for the former Fuel Fandango in a trio format with Xerach Peñate and Carlos Sosa, percussionists with whom Acosta has opened new doors through which tradition and vanguard seep in. An emotional and professional journey, grounded, on the edge, on the island of volcanoes, in which the lament of Valentina la de Sabinosa and the echo of César Manrique intertwine, with much ground still to cover and from which the album was released last year The Future, calling card for what's surely to come.
The noble pieces from this album, for which Ale Acosta has gathered collaborations from artists like the singer from La Palma, Valeria Castro, with whom he made the song, played on the main stage The ash and that the Latin Grammy nomination was worth it to him. Ivory, The hill and the sea, Carmen Square, Valentina, Matter of faith, The future, The ash, Famara, The desire, Where are you going, child? And The Rebels, with the presence on stage of four members of the murga of the same name – the first all-female group in the Canary Islands born in Lanzarote – it was the songs that got the audience on their feet, because here the concept of uniting old and new is a big deal in the Canary Islands, national, and surely international context. We will have to pay attention.
The opening day of this tenth edition also featured prominent artists who set the pace on the main stage of Phe Festival 2025, as was the case with Cycle, Nada Surf, and Dorian. But before this trio of illustrious acts, two Canarian artists were responsible for getting the crowd moving in the early hours: Los Blody and San Tosielo. Los Blody from Tenerife have rock attitude and delivered an energetic concert with their repertoire. I am not going to die here., title of their first album released last year. Among them, I won't shut up, not even with a switch. Say it's all a lie. Your boyfriend prefers me. I'm a criminal. or The little kid from before. After Blody came San Tosielo, Pablo and Adrián, two Canary Islanders based in Madrid who took advantage of their hour to belt out song after song, sung in unison by the hundreds of fans in front of them. Pop and rock brimming with humor, with sharp lyrics and catchy choruses like My son, don't come back, You have to die of something, Why don't you come, Broken heart, by Alejandro Sanz (“the most beautiful love song written in Spanish”), I don't ask God for anything, you or no one or It's a shame.
Cycle heats the track
The Madrileños cycle, with David Kano, Juanjo Reig, La China Patino, and the Lanzarote singer Carlos Ortega, who joined the band this year, returned to Phe Festival with their 20th anniversary tour. Weak on the rocks (2005), the debut album. Cycle's formula of electro-rock, which crossed guitars and twisted synthetic sounds, led the Phe Festival and the audience to the dance floor, presiding over the event's tenth anniversary. From Weak on the rocks they sounded powerful and with some variations, just enough to keep the flame from two decades ago alive, songs that are anthems of the caliber Perfect Pervert, Apple Tree, Confusion, Mechanical, Ray of LightA Walk into it, along with other hits like Beat me, bust me, You talk too much, Masquerade or Dance All Over.
New Yorkers Nada Surf, returning to the Canary Islands (in this case Tenerife, 26 years after their first concert in Gran Canaria) for their international tour Moon Mirror (2024), they took over on the main stage. Matthew Caws on guitar and vocals, Ira Elliot on drums and vocals, Madrid's Dani Lorca on bass and vocals, and Louis Lino on keyboards and vocals, gave a masterclass in power pop, indie rock, whatever you want to call it, based on their repertoire and attitude. Grateful to be returning to the Canary Islands, they played a set that featured both new and old songs. Moon Mirror they sounded Second Skin and In front of me now at the start of the concert, in addition to Intel and Dreams, New Propeller, The One you want and Open Seas. In the middle, stopping on albums like Let Go (2002), from which they played Hi-Speed Soul, Inside of Love or Killian's Red. Songs from other albums also fell, such as Cold to see clear or See these bonesands, I Hyperspace, of his second The Proximity Effect (1998), the classic that made them famous Popular, from High Low (1996), and wink to Pixies with a masterful version of Where is my mind.
To the people of Barcelona from Dorian they had to cross midnight at Phe Festival for its tenth anniversary. Marc Gili, Belly Hernández, Bart Sanz, and Lisandro Montes returned to the festival with new material from their latest album. Impossible futures, in which they explore territories close to electronic pop, new wave, and alternative folk. Something Special, What I Remember About You, In Slow Motion, The Your o Dark matter, from their latest harvest, were celebrated by a devoted audience who knew the group and their repertoire. Songs like Watching the sunrise, The island, Anywhere else or Sandstorm They completed a concert full of compositions that the audience has made their own.
Highlighting that during the set changes on the main stage, the pacing was set by Eva Olvido + MCR Selector, Beat Creator, and Abraham Boba (León Benavente). Additionally, the first day of Phe Festival's tenth anniversary featured the opening of new stages and an expansion of the venue, Phe Club, a gateway to dance music with two spaces, Domo and Faro, where DJs and/or producers like Erol Alkan, Sugar Free, and Posthuman, among other artists, performed.