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Record Breaking Melons on Mallorca!

The Annual Festival in Vilafranca de Bonany Bears Fruit...

featured in News & reviews Author Pam Williamson, Mallorca Editor Updated

Each year the village of Vilafranca de Bonany hosts the annual Festival of Melons (Festa del Melo) to mark the end of the harvest and celebrate the best of local produce from across the Island.

This year saw a record breaking completion in the 21st edition of the Fira del Melo (Malon Fair) with the winning melon weighing in at an astonishing 21.440 kilograms. The competition is based on rewarding the best melon for quality, size and also weight. The winning fruit won over 11 others and was grown by farmers Pere Nicolau and Llorenç Penya, with the second placed melon weighing a mere 18.970 kilograms but grown by the same farmers. The prize for quality, which is the most prestigious but at the same time less popular (probably because it's less impressive than seeing a giant melon!) went to Sebastià Jaume Barceló and the second place to Sebastià Jaume Andreu.

Alongside the Fira del Melo the weekend Festival also hosted numerous opportunities for visitors to enjoy local livestock, farming machinery and local crafts. A great insight into the farming and local food produce culture on Mallorca. The Island is well known for cultivating a myriad of produce. Palma’s Mercat Olivar market demonstrates the variety of freshly grown ingredients including peppers, tomatoes, artichokes, squashes, figs, apricots, almonds and many many more. Olives are one of the island’s principal crops producing so much oil that much is exported to the mainland, and even Italy.

The event also encouraged holiday makers away from the beaches and to travel inland on Mallorca and the area of Pla in general saw an increase in visitors and beverage sales in the bars as the heat took hold and people looked for some respite.

The Mayor of Vilafrance, Montserrat Rossello celebrated in true Mallorcan style and showed off the winning melon for all to see.