# Outstanding Cuban groups in major concert "Forever Formell"

**Date:** 07/27/2019

First-line groups in Cuban popular dance music will unite on August 3rd in the grand concert Por siempre Formell, to pay tribute to one of the most transcendental figures in Cuban music, bassist and composer Juan Formell.


The event, which will take place starting at five in the afternoon at the Havana corner of 23 and Malecón, in the context of the first edition of the International Timba Festival, will host popular lineups such as Alexander Abreu and Habana D'Primera, NG la Banda, Paulito FG and la Elite, and Issac Delgado and his orchestra.

The concert will open with a presentation by the musical group from the Children's Company La Colmenita, who will perform Juan Formell's songs that are part of their already extensive repertoire and will close with Los Van Van, the emblematic orchestra founded by the maestro and which reaches its 50th anniversary this 2019.

The Timba Festival programming will include, among its many activities, two other recitals, the opening and closing concerts, which will pay homage to the 2003 National Music Prize winner from the Salón Rosado de la Tropical Benny Moré.

At nine o'clock on the night of August 2nd the event will kick off with one of these presentations, which will coincide with his birthday; while, at the closing concert, which will be on Sunday the 4th, the call for entries for the next editions of the festival and the competition for interpretation of his work will be launched.

Outstanding artists who performed with Los Van Van will participate in these events, such as Pedrito Calvo, Mayito Rivera and César "Puppy" Pedroso, along with Maykel Blanco and his Salsa Mayor, El Niño y la Verdad, Manolito Simonet and his Trabuco, Adalberto Álvarez and his Son, Haila María Mompié, Mónica Mesa, Bamboleo, Giraldo Piloto and Klímax, Alain Pérez and others.

The event, organized by Los Van Van and the Artistic and Literary Promotion Company Artex S.A., will have a program of conferences, panels, photographic exhibitions and the screening of a documentary.

It will also host, on its final day, the unveiling of a commemorative plaque at the corner of 23 and P, in El Vedado, where the mythical orchestra debuted, which has made Cubans of different generations dance for five decades.