The Guitares au Palais is an annual guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

-oriented music festival

Music festival

A music festival is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines,...

 in the Palace of the Kings of Majorca

Palace of the Kings of Majorca

The Palace of the Kings of Majorca, or Palais des Rois de Majorque in French, is a palace and a fortress with gardens overlooking the city of Perpignan in Pyrenees-Orientales, Languedoc-Roussillon, France.- The Kingdom of Majorca :...

 in Perpignan

Perpignan

-Sport:Perpignan is a rugby stronghold: their rugby union side, USA Perpignan, is a regular competitor in the Heineken Cup and seven times champion of the Top 14 , while their rugby league side plays in the engage Super League under the name Catalans Dragons.-Culture:Since 2004, every year in the...

, Pyrénées-Orientales

Pyrénées-Orientales

Pyrénées-Orientales is a department of southern France adjacent to the northern Spanish frontier and the Mediterranean Sea. It also surrounds the tiny Spanish enclave of Llívia, and thus has two distinct borders with Spain.- History :...

, which began in 2004. The festival focuses on folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, gypsy music, jazz, and flamenco. On the third day there is an additional program with a focus on indie rock

Indie rock

Indie rock is a genre of alternative rock that originated in the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1980s. Indie rock is extremely diverse, with sub-genres that include lo-fi, post-rock, math rock, indie pop, dream pop, noise rock, space rock, sadcore, riot grrrl and emo, among others...

 related artists. The festival is for free.

The festival is held in the last weekend of August in the Palace and the gardens. The festival's art director is Pedro Soler and opens the stage to an eclectic stream of guitar enthousiasts with performances in traditional acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar

An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...

, flamenco

Flamenco

Flamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....

, classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

, gypsy music, pop music

Pop music

Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...

 and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

.

International guests includes the Rosenberg Trio

Rosenberg Trio

The Rosenberg Trio are two guitarists and one bassist—Stochelo Rosenberg , Nous'che Rosenberg and Nonnie Rosenberg from the Netherlands. Their inspiration is Django Reinhardt, the legendary gypsy guitarist of the 1930s...

, Tekamali and Paco Ibáñez

Paco Ibáñez

Francisco "Paco" Ibáñez is a Spanish singer and musician born in Valencia on November 20, 1934, before the Spanish Civil War.He went to France in 1952 during the Franco dictatorship in Spain and recorded his first album in 1964....

 in 2004, Montserrat Figueras

Montserrat Figueras

Montserrat Figueras García was a Catalan soprano who specialized in early music....

, Rolf Lislevand and Manolo Sanlucar

Manolo Sanlúcar

Manolo Sanlúcar is a flamenco composer and guitarist born in Sanlúcar de Barrameda in 1945. He is considered one of the most important Spanish composers of present times, and together with Paco de Lucía, Serranito, and Vicente Amigo, one of the main figures in the evolution of the flamenco...

 in 2005, The National

The National (band)

The National is an indie rock band formed in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1999 and currently based in Brooklyn, New York. The band's lyrics are written and sung by Matt Berninger, a baritone...

 and Sergio Lopez in 2006, Caetano Veloso

Caetano Veloso

Caetano Emanuel Viana Teles Veloso , better known as Caetano Veloso, is a Brazilian composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. Veloso first became known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which encompassed theatre, poetry and music in the 1960s,...

 in 2007, and the Rumberos Catalans, Bernardo Sandoval, Peter Finger and Aaron and Bryce Dessner

Aaron and Bryce Dessner

Aaron and Bryce Dessner are twin brothers and members of the rock band The National. Aaron Dessnerwrites the majority of the music for The National. The brothers are co-founders, alongside Alec Hanley Bemis, of Brassland, a label that is home to artists including The National, the Clogs, catalog...

 in 2008. The 2009 edition was curated by Vincent Moon

Vincent Moon

Vincent Moon is an independent filmmaker from Paris mainly known for his field work music videos of indie rock related musicians as well as some notable mainstream artists like Tom Jones, R.E.M. or Arcade Fire. Besides making music videos he also makes experimental films and documentaries...

 and featured a line-up of indie bands playing on the instruments of Yuri Landman

Yuri Landman

Yuri Landman is a Dutch experimental luthier who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a list of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars, Jad Fair of Half Japanese and Liam Finn...

. This event was filmed for a documentary by Moon.