Starlite

Starlite is Sandra García-Sanjuán's summer in the Nagüeles quarry, southwest of Sierra Blanca, between the Pinar de Nagüeles and Los Manchones, in Marbella. The granite of those walls went to build Puerto Banús. In 2010 she and Antonio Banderas put together a charity gala of the same name. The concert festival opened in 2012. Ignacio Maluquer, her husband, took her to the quarry to dream the place. On Friday 13 July 2012 it opened as a club: 15 euros with a drink, 25 if a name DJ was playing. On Saturday the 14th George Benson opened the concert nights. The portable stands held 3,000. Behind them, 10,000 square metres of floor, drinks and tapas. She and her husband put in six million euros. They gave work to 300 people.

They took out nearly a hundred trucks of rubble, old sofas, washing machines and fridges. Up top, Hollywood-style letters said Auditorio de Marbella, rusty, some of them fallen. That auditorium had been inaugurated in 1983 with Plácido Domingo. Julio Iglesias, Prince Alfonso von Hohenlohe and the tenor had wanted the place, and they left it because the permits never finished. The architect Jean Porsche mixed a Formula 1 tent, which she said was the only one in Spain, with containers for the tapas. In the centre, a coloured floor and white inflatable sofas. Paco Roncero, with the elBulli name Ferran Adrià had granted him, charged 5 to 15 euros for the tapas, and 25 for the ham. About 25 of his people were among the 300.

On Monday 16 July 2012 Manuel Cuéllar was at Roger Hodgson's concert. An hour and a half before, the DJ played hits by ELO, Sting, Phil Collins and Genesis, with no title kept. At 10pm Hodgson, co-founder of Supertramp, from which he had split, played nearly two hours of those classics, and no title was kept either. He said he did not feel obliged to record new material, that the songs came from the heart and that every day they were different. Tickets ran from 60 to 100 euros, and from 70 to 120 at the box office that day. A box of six, with champagne, the vip area and the catering, cost 2,100 euros, 350 a seat. The 40-euro tickets, she said, were almost 20 percent of the capacity.

On 17 August 2022 Leiva arrived with the tour Cuando te muerdas el labio. The light clock read one minute and twenty seconds. The crowd counted three, two, one, and a voice in French cut in. Applause in time with Solaris brought him on, in a shirt of small wings that from far off looked like dots, and a tilted beige hat. Terriblemente cruel, and many people could not stay seated. La lluvia en los zapatos. Infinitos, with backing singer Esmeralda Escalante. Animales, by Pereza. Guerra Mundial, with lava on the stage, and he called «Buenísimas noches, Starlite» before introducing himself. Lobos, under blue lights. He said it was a luxury from another galaxy. Premio de consolación, pink and blue smoke, with Esme. Stranger Things, with no popcorn. Breaking Bad, and the crowd sang «Sobre todas esas cosas que no tienen solución». He told them they could stand up, that nobody would judge them, and he spun. On Superpoderes he danced like Michael Jackson. Flecha pointed at the sky. He asked for three minutes without phones, «in the real world», and with the guitar he did Vis a vis. He said that a few years earlier, with M Clan, he had been the last to leave, and that he would not mind if it happened again. Estrella Polar. His brother Juancho, of Sidecars, on guitar, and Leiva planted a kiss on him. No te preocupes por mí. Como si fueras a morir mañana. The instruments made a circle almost on the floor and he closed with Lady Madrid, shirt open.

On 3 August 2025 Alejandro Hoyos saw Carlos Santana, with the place full. It started on time, with a video. Santana stayed seated for most of it and the guitar did not. Michael Carabello, on congas, has been with him since Santana's own beginning. Cindy Blackman Santana, his wife, on drums. Andy Vargas on vocals. Karl Perazzo and Paoli Mejías on percussion. Benny Rietveld on bass. David K. Mathews on keys. Ray Greene on backing vocals and trumpet. He said love is more powerful than stupidity, and there was a silence. Soul Sacrifice, Jingo, Samba pa ti and Oye Como Va. María María, Yaleo and Corazón Espinado got the whole place on its feet. He premiered Me Retiro, with Grupo Frontera.

3,000 seats is the 2012 stand, not the Santana sell-out. 15 and 25 euros are the club of 13 July, not Hodgson's ticket. 40 euros is the floor she cited, not the box. 60 to 100, and 70 to 120, are Hodgson. 350 and 2,100 are the box. Six million is the investment by her and her husband. 300 people and 25 from Roncero's team are not the same figure. Nearly a hundred trucks is the cleanup, not the capacity. Nearly two hours is Hodgson. One minute twenty is Leiva's clock. Three minutes is the phones. 2010 is the gala. 2012 is the festival. 14 July is Benson, with no song kept. The 16th is Hodgson. 17 August 2022 is Leiva. 3 August 2025 is Santana. They are not averaged.