The 2025 edition of Sol en la Música – Conciertos en la Naturaleza transformed Valladolid into a vibrant space for music, sustainability, and citizen participation. Over three days, on 26, 29 and 30 June, citizens gathered in emblematic natural settings such as Plaza Armonía, Ribera de Castilla and Fuente el Sol, where culture and innovation went hand in hand. The programme featured double concerts, activities for children, a cycling and skating march, and even playful sustainability experiences such as generating electricity for the shows via solar panels and pedal-powered batteries.
Within this inspiring atmosphere, the SPINE project was presented during the “Momento SPINE – ¿Y tú cómo te mueves?” sessions. Valladolid, recognised by the European Commission as a Mission City within the 100 Climate-Neutral and Smart Cities initiative, used the concerts to bring the Climate Mission closer to its residents. SPINE, a European project involving 11 cities, works locally through the city’s Innovation and Economic Development Agency and AUVASA, with the aim of improving the quality, accessibility, and attractiveness of public transport services. During the concerts, the project team spoke specifically about three measures under development: traffic management, with studies on bus travel times to optimise routes and reduce delays; demand prediction, with a predictive tool being developed for bike-sharing stations to improve service management; and communication, with new forms of informing citizens about the city’s public transport.
Each concert attracted between 200 and 300 participants, amounting to several hundred citizens over the three days. Families with children, young people, older residents and music lovers gathered in public spaces, creating a diverse and engaged audience. Attendees were invited to reflect on their mobility habits through open discussions and to complete surveys printed on seed paper, which they could later plant at home as a symbolic gesture of sowing the seeds of sustainable change. Alongside performances by La Orquestina, Yalma, Francachela, Compañía Flamenca Sentidos, the family show El T-Rex que perdió la memoria, and Manusser, the SPINE sessions turned the concerts into a living laboratory of sustainable mobility, demonstrating how culture, innovation and citizen participation can come together to build a healthier, greener and more connected Valladolid.
Click to watch the video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPvtoPvtleA
