In 2016, MANANA became Cuba’s first international electronic music festival, pairing contemporary club producers with Afro-Cuban folkloric musicians in Santiago de Cuba over two weeks of residency and performance. A decade on, the original team reunites for a one-off Bank Holiday takeover hosted by Jaminaround.
The event takes place at the Cranborne Earthouse, a 250-capacity reconstructed Iron Age roundhouse at the Ancient Technology Centre in Dorset. Lit by fire and lamplight, it seats audiences on wooden benches beneath an earth roof supported by 21 oak trees, ash purlins and dozens of pole rafters. It is communal gathering space, not your usual concert venue, and its intimacy reinforces the residency-based, cross-cultural nature of the work.
The line-up reflects original festival commissions alongside new collaborative projects. Iranian electronic composer Pouya Ehsaei rejoins Cuban percussionists Hammadi Valdes (formerly of Irakere) and Oreste Noda (who arrived in London as Hugh Masekela’s percussionist and now helms the Sambroso event series) as Ariwo, reviving the hypnotic, dub-inflected forward motion that defined the project across two albums and an international touring run. Producer duo Soundspecies revisit the percussion-heavy material they developed in Cuba with Santiago master drummers Ache Meyi.
New commissions expand the focus: Frank Portuondo, originally from Guantánamo, explores the hypnotic marímbula bass lines and interlocking rhythms of changüí, a regional eastern-Cuban style rarely heard live in the UK. Ori Si Orun — a project led by Gerardo de Armas, a former member of the influential rumba ensemble Yoruba Andabo, alongside Yusniel Martinez Carranza and José Antonio Molina — will reimagine works by rumba giants Los Papines.
The Saturday event also serves as the public culmination of MANANA Labs, a new week-long residency running just beforehand. The Labs pair Cuban musicians, including saxophonist Regis Molina, and Palestinian multi-instrumentalist Dirar Kalash with UK-based experimentalists such as electroacoustic cellist Abi Asisa and singer-producer feeo, who recently released on AD 93. The resulting improvisational performances are built specifically for the communal, circular setting of the Earthouse. DJ sets from mi-el, whose NTS residency Pulling Threads draws on her Congolese heritage and contemporary club music, and from Adam Isbel of the Racubah Sound System — a core member of the original 2016 MANANA family — bridge the live sets with leftfield bass, electro and Afro-diasporic records.
The Ancient Technology Centre sits in Cranborne, Dorset, roughly two hours from London or ninety minutes from Bristol, with the nearest rail connection at Salisbury. Camping is included in the standard ticket price.
Tickets and the full line-up are available via the official listing & RA MANANA // CUBA is crowdfunding £2,000 to support LA CAJA NEGRA, a Santiago de Cuba-based experimental theatre collective working to sustain local arts amidst the island's ongoing crisis. You can donate HERE