Seville & its Guitar Festival: a guitarist's travel guide
Seville Guitar Festival · Seville, Spain
Seville is the sound of the Spanish guitar made into a city, all orange blossom, flamenco and Moorish light. Its international guitar festival, built around a competition founded in 2010 by the guitarist Francisco Bernier, brings touring virtuosos to the Andalusian capital each autumn and makes a glorious reason to visit.
Getting there
Seville is on the high-speed network, with AVE trains from Madrid in around two and a half hours arriving at Santa Justa station. Seville airport (SVQ) lies just northeast of the city with a growing list of European connections.
Compare trains, buses & flights to Seville on Omio →
Where to stay
Stay in the old centre, around the cathedral, Santa Cruz or Triana across the river, and you can walk to the concerts and soak up the city between them. Autumn is a lovely time to visit, cooler than the fierce summer, but rooms still fill, so book ahead.
An interactive map of hotels, apartments and B&Bs across Booking, Expedia, Airbnb and more, centred on Seville.
See stays in Seville →What you'll hear
The festival threads recitals by leading guitarists through the season and crowns them with a competition that runs from elimination rounds to a final gala. Its list of winners is striking for a relatively young event, including Thibaut García and Florian Larousse, both now major artists. Programmes range across classical, flamenco and contemporary music, in keeping with the city's own restless guitar culture.
If you play as well as listen, explore Isaac Albéniz, whose Sevilla and Asturias define the sound on Sheet Music Plus →
Where to eat
Seville is a tapas city, so eat in small plates: gazpacho and salmorejo, pescaíto frito, spinach with chickpeas, and plenty of jamón ibérico, all washed down with a cold fino or manzanilla sherry. Grazing bar to bar is the local sport.
While you're there
Córdoba and its Mezquita are under an hour away by AVE for a full day, and the Roman ruins of Italica lie just outside the city at Santiponce. In Seville itself the Alcázar and the cathedral tower reward slow days between concerts. A rental car makes the day trips simple, and GetYourGuide lists guided tours and tickets across the region.
Enter the pieces you play, and GuitarComp shows how your programme maps to this competition's rounds and which other events you qualify for.
See full competition details →Competition dates, deadlines and the current compulsory work change each edition, so always confirm at the official site: guitartfestivalsevilla.com.