The world’s biggest flamenco event generated 4,320 news items which reached more than 614 million people, making it one of the three Spanish cultural events most covered by the media.
The  economic impact of this media coverage is deemed to have reached 8 million euros.

The balance sheet of the 54th Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas de La Unión could not have been more positive in every way.  The sold-out flamenco shows, the awards ceremony and the success of the singing, dance, guitar and instrumentalist contests, the massive media
coverage all confirm the Cante de las Minas and its flamenco festival also as the most important flamenco event in the world.

Since January of this year, straight through to date, the Festival has generated 4,320 news items in the national media, both traditional (print, radio and television) and digital (Internet). This
represents a growth of over 100% from last year, when 1,974 items were published. The audience reached by these publications has also risen dramatically and even doubled, reaching 614,083,300 people.

As for the economic value of the impart of this information, analyzing it from an advertising point of view, a first estimate is calculated that approaches 8 million euros, specifically, standing at 7,802,616 euros.

This data derives from the «Informe de Medios» report prepared for the Cante de las Minas Foundation by the prestigious consulting firm «KANTAR MEDIA», which has carried out extensive monitoring in newspapers, radio, periodicals, television, Internet and social networks.

The media via which the most news items referring to the Festival del Cante de las Minas were published, were Spanish national television, with «TVE» at the top, followed by the channels «24 Hours», «Tele 5» and «Cuatro», in addition to the most important regional television stations such as «Canal Sur» and «Telemadrid». In the case of Spanish Television, the event has again been the closing piece for 12 newscasts nationwide, and had a constant presence on the 24-hour channel with summaries of everything that took place in La Unión, and even specific thematic areas such as the program «Tendido Zero» thanks to the show «Tauromaquia Flamenca». Through television 18,100,000 people received news of the event.

As for print media, and aside from regional newspapers such as «La Verdad», «La Opinión» and «El Correo de Andalucía», known for their loyal support of the Festival, the national newspapers «ABC», «El Mundo» and «El País», in both their print and digital editions, gave noteworthy coverage. In total, 735 news items reached over 110 million people.

Among radio stations, «Radio Nacional de España – RNE», «Onda Cero», «Cope» and «Cadena Ser», all of them, as well as the regional ones such as «Canal Sur Radio», broadcast 58 news reports that reached nearly 18 million people.

And via Internet, all the major media broadcast news of the Festival at their respective webs, as well as specialized media such as «Yahoo.es News», «The Confidencial.com», «The Economista.es» and «20.minutos.es». The largest volume of news was in fact moved online, with 3,501 informative pieces, and an audience of nearly 473 million people throughout the world.

It must also be noted that broadcasts from the new project of the Festival on the Internet, «Flamenco Streaming», have been a success, visits to the web to see the videos and interviews, already reached many thousands during the event. Clearly, the festival «Cante de Las Minas 2.0» has no boundaries, as is also demonstrated by the numerous publications in international media.

With over 200 activities in the General Programming of the 54th Festival del Cante de las Minas de La Unión, along with the gala flamenco shows and the singing, guitar, dance and instrumentalist competitions, reviews could not have been more upbeat from the more than 100 officially recognized journalists who visited La Unión during the contest, professionals from both Murcia and from other parts of Spain, as well as from abroad, including the countries of England, India, Japan and the Czech Republic.

As for the number of visitors, over 46,000 people traveled to La Unión during the month of August, which represents a new record of tourist visits to our town, from which the specific sectors of hotels, shops and local businesses benefited very directly, while visits to the Mining Park and our museums increased somewhat.

The data from the Festival’s box office also corroborate the success of this year’s event. Of the 150,000 euros budgeted in ticket sales, 146,348 euros, in other words, 98% of the total was taken in, most notably by the sold-out shows of Miguel Poveda, Ballet Flamenco of the Cante de las Minas, Sara Baras, Estrella Morente and the grand finale of the contests. Compared to 2013, when a sum of 140,000 euros was taken in at the box-office, the total has grown by 5%.

All these data have been made known just four days after the conclusion of this year’s Festival Internacional del Cante de las Minas, by the CEO of the Cante de las Minas Foundation and La Unión Mayor, Francisco Bernabé, and Festival Director Julio Garcia.

According to Francisco Bernabé, «with these data, the Festival has solidly established itself as the world’s largest and most media-worthy, with the biggest worldwide projection of any held in the Region of Murcia, and one of the top three that takes place throughout Spain in the realm of culture».

The Mayor stressed that «beyond any doubt, regarding flamenco, the Cante de las Minas is the best event in the world, which has led to its election by the National Government of Spain as the official brand image known as Marca España. This makes us the only flamenco contest that can represent our country at the international level, a reality which has also been endorsed by the concession to the event of the «Gold Medal for Merit in the Fine Arts».