Ecos Festival | Festival Internacional de Música Antigua de Sierra Espuña

IX EDITION OF ECOS FESTIVAL OF SIERRA ESPUÑA

9th Edition of the ECOS Festival in Sierra Espuña (2025)

7 to 22 November 2025

Autumn becomes the new natural setting for the ECOS Festival, a season of calm, beauty and discovery.

The ECOS Festival of Sierra Espuña celebrates its ninth edition with a new season and format: this year, for the first time, the festival moves to autumn, offering its programme between 7 and 22 November. For three weekends, the Sierra Espuña Territory will once again become a meeting place for early music, heritage and nature.

This edition invites you to rediscover Sierra Espuña in autumn, a time when the landscape is tinged with golden hues, the air becomes cooler and the sounds of the forest —migratory birds, the wind in the pines, the murmur of water— mingle with the echoes of music. A cultural and sensory experience: a unique opportunity to experience the mountains in a different way: walking among wild fruits, fallen leaves and the scent of damp earth, and enjoying music in indoor spaces that evoke contemplation, closeness and emotion.

The concerts will be held in the six municipalities of the Sierra Espuña Territory: Aledo, Alhama de Murcia, Librilla, Mula, Pliego and Totana, which will host a programme that combines youth, talent and interpretative excellence, inviting visitors and residents to experience their heritage, history and environment from a different perspective.

The groups scheduled for this ninth edition are musicians from the United Kingdom, Armenia, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain, who will bring a diverse and contemporary vision to historical performance. [H]Éros Ensemble, Anacronía, Cantoría, Lowe, Coloquio 6 and Intesa Duo are leading ensembles on the early music scene and emerging European performers. This international dimension consolidates ECOS as a European meeting point for the new generation of early music musicians, connecting young talent with unique heritage venues.

Despite the challenges faced in recent years, the organising entities —the Sierra Espuña Tourist Association, Early Music Project, the vocal group Cantoría and the University of Murcia— remain committed to a sustainable, creative festival with an international outlook.

The ECOS Festival 2025 will continue to strengthen its ties with important European institutions such as the Brighton Early Music Festival (United Kingdom), the Estella Early Music Week (Navarra), the International Young Artist Presentation (Antwerp) and the S-EEEMERGING project, funded by the European Union.

Thus, autumn becomes the new natural setting for the ECOS Festival, a season of calm and beauty that invites you to listen, feel and discover the essence of Sierra Espuña through music as a guide and the landscape as inspiration.

Programme 2025

Survival of the ECOS Festival of Sierra Espuña

ECOS is a festival made possible by the support of numerous institutions and companies. It stands as an example of a public-private partnership that has resulted in a cultural and tourism product bringing the name of the Region of Murcia and the “Sierra Espuña Territory” to many corners of Europe.

The organisers are committed to the festival’s sustainable growth, aligned with the resources pledged by the organising entities and the continuation of central and regional government support through cultural industry funding programmes.

The Ministry of Culture, through the National Institute of Performing Arts and Music (INAEM), has renewed its support for the festival, increasing its funding compared to previous years and recognising ECOS as an event that champions cultural decentralisation and territorial uniqueness. However, the Government of the Region of Murcia has yet to confirm its support for the 2025 edition and, in the last edition, reduced its contribution by more than 60% compared to 2023.

This reduction in financial resources has caused delays in organising the event, leading to its postponement until November. Even so, work continues with all partners to secure stable and sufficient resources to guarantee the festival’s future.

Corporate sponsorship from companies such as El Pozo, Iberchem, and Autocares Espuña has also been essential for the festival’s consolidation. Thanks to this support, albeit with some adjustments, the ECOS Festival will remain committed to offering high-quality, sustainable tourism in the “Sierra Espuña Territory,” with innovative programming rooted in the area’s identity and natural heritage, while also stimulating the local economy.

ECOSistema Sierra Espuña

We want to build a community of people who love early music and nature around the Sierra Espuña area.

We’re looking for friends, collaborators, volunteers, micro-patrons, artists, artisans, and more, to receive early information, participate in exclusive events, and get personalized offers.

The Regenerative Culture ECOS project (Early Music Project Association) has received funding through the “Competitive Grants for Expanding and Diversifying Cultural Offerings in Non-Urban Areas, from the Recovery, Transformation, and Resilience Plan (PRTR)” provided by the Institute of Cultural Industries and Arts of the Region of Murcia.

This plan has helped boost various activities aimed at stimulating cultural dynamism in rural areas, focusing on sustainability, diversity, modernization, internationalization of the Region of Murcia’s brand, and addressing demographic challenges.

I want to know more

ECOS Festival received the REMA Award in Dublin for ‘Best Artist Development Program’. The award recognized its ECOS Labs, an initiative that started in 2020 due to the pandemic and was revived in the 6th edition of the festival thanks to the University of Murcia.

Through this award, the ECOS Sierra Espuña Festival shows its commitment to emerging ensembles, young talent, and internationalization. ECOS Labs is a program developed by Jorge Losana and David Gutiérrez.

ECOS Festival of Sierra Espuña, organized by Early Music Project along with the Sierra Espuña Tourist Consortium and the University of Murcia, has been held annually since 2017 during the summer in the Region of Murcia, specifically in the municipalities of Aledo, Alhama de Murcia, Librilla, Mula, Pliego, and Totana.

The festival aims to achieve high musical quality by attracting music professionals both nationally and internationally, enhance the tourism and cultural offerings of the Region of Murcia, and promote the value of local and regional heritage.

ECOS features a blend of concerts, nature, heritage, children’s activities, and tourism experiences centered around early music. Additionally, it includes ECOS Labs, a series of educational and supplementary activities designed to attract young professionals specializing in early music from around the world, providing them with tools to facilitate their integration into the international music circuit.

ECOS Festival collaborates with Juventudes Musicales de España and is part of Festclásica, the Spanish Association of Classical Music Festivals, as well as REMA, the European Early Music Network, which brings together the most important international festivals, making ECOS the sixth Spanish member. Albert Edelman, president of REMA, described the ECOS Festival as “a young festival with innovative ideas, essential for the cultural development of European regions.

ECOS is much more than a festival: it’s a gathering of sensations and sounds that, set against a stunning natural and historical backdrop, becomes a unique experience.

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