Frigiliana gets ready to celebrate its Christian, Islamic and Jewish heritage

This year's Festival de las Tres Culturas (three cultures) in Frigiliana is taking place from Thursday 28 to Sunday 31 August.

Now in its eighteenth year, the event celebrates the town's Christian, Muslim and Jewish cultures. On each day visitors will find a craft market with a hundred stalls, music, storytelling, nighttime masked parades and 'Muluk gnawa'; a candlelit walk.

There's also a multifaith chapel, fireworks displays and the tapas route and workshops and activities for children and families.

The four day event allows visitors to enjoy and discover the rich legacy that these three cultures have left in the Axarquía when Frigiliana becomes a meeting place where history, music, art and gastronomy intertwine.

This year the live music concerts will take place in three venues: San Antonio de Padua church, town hall patio and Plaza de las Tres Culturas.

This year's performers include Kiko Veneno, Colectivo Panamera, KlezMerama, Al-Marán y Neftis Paloma, Mawazin and El Mantel de Noa offering a mix of flamenco, Mediterranean music, Sephardic sounds, Arabic rhythms, Balkan music and Latin American fusion.

On Thursday 28 at 6pm the market and the tapas route will officially begin and there will be live music in the Callejón del Inquisidor and La Princesa Ratona de Berta la Despierta in the exhibition hall. At 7pm there will be a parade, "Raqus al Hagala: the Bedouin dance.

At 10pm the official opening of the festival will take place in the Plaza de las Tres Culturas, with a candlelit walk, a musical show and a masks parade and at 11pm Al-Maran and Neftis Paloma will perform.

There will be free shuttle buses from the designated car parks and between Frigiliana and Nerja.

For a full programme go to: www.frigiliana3culturas.com.