In Tarragona, culture is as necessary as our daily bread

Seneca used to say that wisdom is the only freedom. Magí Seritjol is the manager of the Tarraco Viva festival, and he craved wisdom as a child by absorbing pages of history books in the library. These days in the digital era, he is still learning, taking information and sharing it with others. Tarraco Viva acts as a huge social network for history dissemination and thinking. Culture, when shared, multiplies its transforming effect. “And it is as necessary as our daily food”, says Seritjol.

Tarraco Viva is to history as John Ford was to cinema: a clear narrative style, with no additives, focusing on the virtues and flaws that define us as human beings. In the same way as The Searchers (1956), a classic among the classics, this Roman festival tells us about a never ending search that raises new questions as it goes along. The quest to find out who we are.

With over 2,000 years of history –and stories–, Tarragona is a great place to start this quest. The harbour, working since the Roman period, has seen an endless flow of goods, ideas and values that have left a trace in the city. One can see the essence of a varied and shared Mediterranean Sea in the people’s character, the core of what has been the cradle of many civilisations for thousands of years. To Magí Seritjol, son of a fishing family, the so-called “Mare Nostrum” has also been an inexhaustible source of both food and experiences.

The festival has maintained true to its values and objectives over the years. “Conservation and scientific research make no sense unless we spread it in a properly adapted way”, says Seritjol.

Tarraco Viva was born from the symbiosis of two apparently distant disciplines: the performing arts and the search of a new state of recognition for Tarragona’s Roman heritage. Inspired by the re-enactment festivals, this event includes dramatised reconstructions of daily life in Rome, as well as exhibitions, guided tours, conferences, gastronomy demonstrations, workshops and cinema. It mobilises over 1,000 people and now attracts around over 120,000 spectators.

“I’ve connected my two passions thanks to the festival: history and cultural management. We’ve cemented a single thread, every edition is a whole new challenge, and I am more excited now than I was in the beginning”, says Seritjol. Tarraco Viva makes the most of not just the city’s incredible Roman legacy; it has built up a pretty remarkable network of international collaborators that position Tarragona as a cultural city, and it has been able to take advantage of the close location of scientific institutions such as the URV (Universitat Rovira i Virgili) or the Institut Català d’Investigació Clàssica (Catalan Institute of Classical Investigation). The project has had a multiplier affect, leading to the development of local historical reconstruction groups that has made Tarragona a trademark for other cultural events.

Tarraco Viva aims to build an industry to share Tarragona’s history, along with the growing cultural offer of the city. By generating profits, it can help preserve, research and disseminate history; through a sustainable circle.

By taking an authentic approach, the festival has proved that culture can really support the local community. For every Euro invested, it produces 8€ of profit. The most important point however is the substance and not the form, Seritjol insists, “We must know where we want to go, be concious of what we are doing, and ensure that this drives the activities and ideas; not the opposite.”