Sonidos del Desierto: Acoustic outdoor concert with local artists

Maren Wolf
Sep 28, 2025
3 min read

September 28, 2025

Author: Maren Wolf

In September 2025 I organised an intimate outdoor acoustic concert with local and international artists. Designed to be an active listening experience where we break the border between audience and artists, the concert was a co-creative event where people come together as friends and share their love for live music. The concert was set in Donkey Corral, a beautiful space in the Sunseed land amongst wild bushes and olive trees with the desert mountains in the back and stars shining bright in the night sky.

CONCEPT:

Sonidos del Desierto did initially not start out as my personal project. It was just a little dream I played with. After my many years of working for the concert organisation ‘Sofar Sounds’, I truly missed hosting music events. Especially concerts that are for true listening and appreciating the artists in a genuine and honest way.

I was glad to bring this idea to Sunseed and was overwhelmed with happiness and gratitude when it got so passionately accepted by the community. The concert was meant to be a space for not only sharing music, but opening a space for small local artists to express themselves in front of an audience that listens attentively.

The concept is to bring back the magic and intimacy between audience and artists. As friends, as music lovers, as community. It was an active listening experience, inviting people to be present and to come together in harmony. The event was therefore a co-creative activity, where not only Sunseed provided and the artists performed, but the audience contributed by shaping and supporting the space with their attention and love. Very important to me was that the income of the concert went directly to the artists supporting their beautiful craft.

The musicians were local Spanish artists, one from Poland and one from Mexico. I’m glad that Anna, our ESC volunteer, joined us with her tender poetry about the land and its beings. Romero, our Eco-maintenance coordinator, enchanted us with their lovely cello sounds. Having Río back with her divine voice was a pleasure, together with the beautiful guitar tunes of Dani, the folky flute and funny tales of Tyron.

Secretly a special guest to me was Juanito, our beloved Esparto guru, who carries an immense stage freight and yet was brave enough to gift us some of his beautiful flamenco guitar playing.

The people of Sunseed were incredible at helping the week before to set up the event space. Together we built a structure for the stage lights, painted signs, cut grass, cleaned the area and even built a compost toilet.

Every last chair of Sunseed and all the cozy cushions were carried to Donkey Corral and created a beautiful intimate environment. We set up a bar and a market stand selling our products, homemade drinks and fresh popcorn. I designed a poster and the social media material to advertise for the event, distributing them in the surrounding villages.

The event itself was by far the most spectacular one I have ever organised (after 6 years of working at a concert organisation).

We had more than 50 people attending that night including neighbours, friends and people from nearby villages. The music was breathtaking and made us not only laugh sometimes (the toothbrush as an instrument, Tyron’s hilarious lyrics or Juanito’s and Dani’s attempt to improv-flamenco together) but also made us shed some sweet tears. Unexpected changes made for surprising moments of collective musical improvisation and I even learned how to play the cheese grater with a spoon that night! No doubt this was a magical night, with music under the open sky and never-ending dances in the dust of the desert.