Malaga has been hosting an independent poetry festival for fifteen years, distinguished by its unique features. It brings together two poetics that scarcely intersect and proposes a curation of the poetic experience that moves away from the lectern.
Under the motto “15 years without reconciling,” the festival will run from October 14 to 17, dedicating this edition to the new (and not-so-new) horizons of Spanish poetry under a proven format that aims to reconcile writings, poetics, and authors who appear irreconcilable.
This year, voices such as Alejandro Palomas, Paula Melchor, Sabina Urraca and Recreativos Federico come together on the poster, a playful-exhibition tribute to Lorca.
Violeta Gil, Punzadas Sonoras, Juanpe Sánchez López, Alejandro Simón Partal, Ariadna Chez, Flor M. Yustas, Paloma Peñarrubia, the Palma-Palmilla neighbors, Patri Florido and Colectivo Estreno complete the line-up of participants in a edition that will enrich the national lyrical and literary landscape this autumn.
Workshops, readings, music, and performance will unfold in Málaga’s cultural spaces.
*
Under the motto “15 years without reconciling,” Irreconciliables revives the momentum of its early editions, when poetry mixed with music, theatre, or play, in a commitment to a living, accessible, and radically free language.
“One would have to measure the age of poetry festivals as one measures a dog’s age: each year multiplies by seven, by the effort required to sustain them and by the intensity with which they are experienced. So we turn 15 years old, even if inside we feel 105,” say the festival directors, Violeta Niebla and Ángelo Néstore. Fortunately, both retain the complexion and the look of fifteen-year-olds.
Poesía, artista y lugar se dan un beso en cada cita
The program begins on Wednesday, October 14 with a light gathering at La Térmica, where Recreativos Federico will be inaugurated, a space of play, humor, irony, and poetry inhabited by the figure of the Granada-born poet and playwright Federico García Lorca. The exhibition, made up of seven arcade machines and consumer devices based on works by Federico García Lorca and his milieu, will remain open until October 21.
On Thursday, October 15, Irreconciliables debuts Grapes and Kisses Taste Like Cheese, a picnic at La Térmica with authors Paula Melchor and Sabina Urraca. The event, for which prior registration is required, will feature a small natural-wine and Malaga cheese tasting. At 16:30, La Térmica doors will open for attendees to enjoy a Poetic Siesta, accompanied by readings of Sabina Urraca and Paula Melchor’s short stories. After this peculiar break, at 19:00 We Were Marveling, a stage piece by Violeta Gil with music by Marcos Nadie about friendship and love between people from two generations that are close yet very different, will begin. The day will close at 20:00 with the Palma-Palmilla neighbors presenting and reading their first poetry collection Neighbors: Poems from the Palma-Palmilla Neighborhood.
On Friday, October 16, poetry moves to the Centro Cultural Fundación Unicaja with readings by Juanpe Sánchez López and Alejandro Simón Partal (7:30 p.m.), who will share poems about imaginary boyfriends, a dog chasing pigeons, brilliantly bright stars (and many other lovely things). Next, we will witness the recording of a gloss from the Punzadas Sonoras podcast. For this program, Paula Ducay and Inés García will place a poem on the table as if it were a body in an autopsy room, dissecting the poem Hogaza de mi pan by Paco Cumpián (1951-2025), while the audience circles the running water, the rider, and the lone zebra.
On Saturday, October 17, the Pompidou Museum will host from 10:00 to 14:00 the workshop Word Games of Love: Carved Narrative, coordinated by Ariadna Chez and Flor M. Yustas, which will delve into affective dynamics through language and three-dimensional sculpture.
That same day, in the afternoon, the festival Irreconciliables will close at the Palacio de Valdeflores at 20:00. Patri Florido will open the doors of the palace with a few couplets that will lead to the poetic reading by Alejandro Palomas. Finally, the event will conclude with the Estreno reading-performance by Colectivo Estreno in honor of the women poets of the Generation of ’27.
That same night, as has become a festival tradition, the finale will arrive at midnight with Poesía en remojo, an intimate concert by Paloma Peñarrubia at Hammam Al Ándalus. At midnight, the 45 people who secured their spot will be able to bathe while a live string quartet performs a suite of Paloma Peñarrubia’s works adapted for a place where water also listens.
A festival that does not wed anyone, it weds everyone. That is Irreconciliables
The Irreconciliables Festival was born in Málaga following the foundational model of Francisco Cumpián, as a space where different voices from the national and international poetic spheres mix, cross, and understand one another. Over its fifteen editions, it has established itself as a meeting point between established authors and new voices, proving that diversity is a source of wealth rather than conflict.
True to its spirit, Irreconciliables promotes poetry free from sectarianism, open, plural, and professional, where all voices are necessary. Coordinated by writers, poets, and cultural managers Violeta Niebla and Ángelo Néstore, the festival continues to defend poetry as a collective act of dialogue and coexistence, in which creation is shared with the public from closeness and emotion.
The 2026 edition enjoys the sponsorship of the Ministry of Culture, La Térmica, the Diputación de Málaga, and the City Council of Málaga, as well as the collaboration of the Centro Cultural Generación del 17, Fundación Unicaja, the Musée Pompidou, Fundación Pérez Estrada, Periscopio, Hammam Al Ándalus, Radio Primavera Sound, Librería Rayuela, and Ocoa. Thanks to the commitment of these institutions and entities, Irreconciliables remains a cultural and poetic reference, open to all citizens and committed to artistic development and living words.