Vida Records & Friends

A festival that started a label

The parent body is Vida Festival, which runs each summer at the Masia d'en Cabanyes above Vilanova i la Geltrú, on the coast south-west of Barcelona. Its twelfth edition took place over 2, 3 and 4 July 2026, with Fatboy Slim, Guitarricadelafuente, Ralphie Choo and Amaia among the headline bookings and a bill that spread Catalan acts across all three days alongside the international names.

In November 2019 the same organisation added a record label. Vida Records was pitched as a way to push the underground culture of its own territory and to back musicians trying to make a living from it, and it opened with a debut single by Tversky — the electrofunk duo of Alan Imar and Xavier Paradís — released on 15 November 2019, with the album following in February 2020. The launch was marked on 22 November 2019 at Monkey Week in Seville, with Zulu Zulu, Ljubliana & The Seawolf and Tversky playing.

Building a roster

The label grew by small, announced batches rather than by scale. On 17 January 2022 it confirmed four additions at once: Amaia Miranda, a Basque singer-songwriter whose debut "Cuando se nos mueren los amores" was set for 25 February and described at the time as stark, close-up folk; BOYE, the project of David Menéndez, working across hip-hop, funk and electronics; The Bird Yellow, the Barcelona musician and film-maker Gerard Vidal, whose second album was dated 8 April; and Socunbohemio, Artur Viñas, who put out singles through the year ahead of a debut album in the autumn.

Those four sat alongside earlier and later roster names including Tversky, Lavanda, Sam Berridge, Henrio and Guineu. It is a catalogue measured in handfuls of records rather than hundreds, and that scale is what makes the live cycle legible: the shows are, in large part, how the releases get heard.

The cycle: one night, two labels

Vida Records & Friends was announced on 15 March 2022 as a spring run of paired concerts, split between the Antiga Fàbrica Damm and La Nau in Barcelona, at €10 plus fees. Holders of a Vida 2022 festival pass got into the Damm shows free and could bring someone. The first run put Socunbohemio with Iris Deco on 24 March and BOYE on his own on 30 March, then Guineu with The Bird Yellow presenting his new album on 28 April, Lavanda with Intana on 4 May, Yaunest with Ven'nus on 10 May, Tversky with a guest on 19 May and Amaia Miranda with Henrio on 31 May.

The organising idea, stated plainly from the start, is to connect Vida Records with other labels at home and abroad and to build each night from two rosters rather than one. Early seasons also ran at €12, discounted to €10.80 for festival pass holders, and reached across to the Auditori Eduard Toldrà in Vilanova i la Geltrú — The New Raemon with Sam Berridge there, Renaldo & Clara with Mareta Bufona — while Barcelona dates took in Mazoni with La Ludwig Band, Pol Batlle and Rita Payés with Carlota Flâneur, Pantocrator with El Diablo de Shanghai, and Tversky with b1n0.

The cycle has described itself as based in Barcelona and Vilanova with the intention of spreading gradually to other cities, and it has done so in small steps: Valeria Castro and La iaia have both been billed under the banner, and a Tim Bernardes date has carried it to Madrid.

The 2026–27 season

Nine dates are currently on sale, and they divide into two clear strands. The club nights are the bigger bookings: Gazella in the smaller La 2 room at Apolo on 8 October 2026 at €18, Carlangas at Sala Apolo on 12 November at €26, Socunbohemio returning to Apolo on 25 February 2027 at €21, and Parquesvr at Razzmatazz 1 on 4 March 2027 at €25. All four start at 21:00.

The second strand runs at the Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm, where five nights double as launch parties for Vida Festival 2027 — earlier starts at 19:30, a flat €18, and the paired format kept intact. La Publicitat and Bernal play on 22 October 2026, Cervatana on 26 November, Chinese American Bear with Fuji? on 21 January 2027, Axolotes Mexicanos with Balma on 18 February, and Queralt Lahoz, playing acoustic, with Mar Pujol on 11 March. That last date closes the season.

Who the guests are this season

The booking logic shows in who is on the current bill. Gazella formed in Valencia in late 2021 and work in shoegaze and dream pop, citing Slowdive, My Bloody Valentine, Yo La Tengo and Radiohead; the five-piece is Irene Ricart on vocals, Lluisen Capafons on drums and vocals, Mauro Llopis on bass, and Adrián Camáñez and Alba Raja on guitar and synth. They released the single "Reflejo" through Foehn Records on 22 September 2026, self-produced by Camáñez and Capafons with mastering by Pedro Viñuela, and arrive at Apolo still touring the 2025 album "Vías" and its companion EP "Vías B", with the new track folded into the set.

Cervatana, at the Estrella Damm in November, is a newer concern built around Miguelito García, Jose Ugía and Fran Sánchez, with roots in Derby Motoreta's Burrito Kachimba, Kelia and Puerto Hurraco; their self-titled debut came out in 2026 on Oso Polita. Carlangas, the most expensive ticket of the nine, released his third solo album "Universo Paralelo" on 28 May 2026 through Caries Records and Virgin Music Group, with guests including Leiva, and spent the summer on the Spanish festival circuit before the Apolo date.

What a night amounts to

Reviews of the cycle as a cycle are hard to find; the critical writing attaches itself to the individual records and to the artists' own tours, which is probably the honest measure of what this is. Vida Records & Friends is a promoter's frame rather than a band, and its value sits in the pairing — a headliner with a record to push, a second act from another label who would not otherwise share the stage, and a room small enough that both are audible.

What has stayed constant across four and a half years is the price discipline and the double bill. Tickets began at €10 in 2022 and top out at €26 for the biggest booking of the current run, and the festival-pass discount that seeded the early audience has carried through into the Vida 2027 launch nights.