Event Previews & Reviews from Mallorca

A trip to Deià on the north coast of Majorca is a must for anyone wishing to experience the diversity that this beautiful island has to offer.

The Diamond Jubilee celebrations may be over in the UK, but here on Mallorca, we enjoyed a quintessential English garden party at La Residencia Hotel in Deia to mark the British monarch’s 60th year on the throne.

The month of June gets the summer beach parties in Mallorca off to a fine start. The weather is glorious and we all look for excuses to get down on the sand and remember why we moved here. The beach and perfect horse shoe bay of Port de Soller never fail to delight and the children start to look forward to their holidays and swapping school shoes for no shoes. The diving platform is installed in the water this week and then the locals know that summer has officially started.

On Saturday, February 1st, I went along to the 2nd edition of The SuppER Club, hosted by The Van Mallorca. This was a Japanese evening held at the trendy Zunray Yoga Studio on Calle Sant Feliu.

One of the best times of the year to visit Mallorca is during the month of May. The temperatures start to rise and the lack of tourists means that you can get around without being stuck in traffic jams. More importantly, the month of May is when the little known town of Capdepera in the north east of the island hosts its Medieval ‘Fira’.

On December 2nd, I joined a whole host of families as they flocked to Santa Ponsa’s Christmas Market, held in the industrial area of Son Bugadellas.

Festivals in Mallorca are a considerably more boisterous affair than our more reserved British fetes with their Maypoles and cream teas.

This week Rialto Living kicked off its first art exhibition of 2017 with a showing of Adrian Elgie’s ‘Mis Nuevas Vistas - A Bright New Vista’ and I was kindly invited to visit the opening night. Adrian is an English contemporary landscape artist and, having seen some examples of his paintings and read his background of moving to Mallorca from Cambridgeshire (my home county) to rekindle a romance with his former art college sweetheart on the island, I was keen to find out more.

June is upon us now and here in Mallorca that means we have some BIG opening parties ahead of us and the beginning of some of the major events of the Summer.

Mallorca's largest foreign community is actually the German one, so much so that in Germany, Mallorca is jokingly referred to as the 17th Federal State.

Spain, being predominantly Catholic, worships its saints devoutly. Every day of the year has a saints name associated with it and some are honoured with celebrations. January is a busy month, with Saint Anthony's day on 17th of January and Saint Sebastian following shortly after, on 20th January.

In recent years, Mallorca has embraced the street food trend that has hit Western Europe, with food festivals popping up at various events around the island. This new found love went to the next level, as the first weekend in June saw Barcelona’s legendary VAN VAN make its debut trip across the Spanish waters to Palma’s Parc de la Mar, next to the city's iconic cathedral.

Spring officially takes hold. With support from the city of Palma de Mallorca and the collective Balearic Islands Government, the international festival of contemporary dance, 'Palma amb la dansa' as it's called in Catalan...or Palma loves dance in English, has arrived to Mallorca for the eighth year in a row.

Soller and its hidden valley celebrate all things orange in June with the Fiesta of the Orange. From the 2nd to 17th June, both Soller & Port de Soller go back to their roots and give the orange the place in its calender that it deserves. Soller has a micro climate and water supplies that produce the best oranges.

Schools out for summer and the children and their teachers celebrated in Soller style with trips to the local museums and the beach taking the place of lessons. The Port of Soller only has one school and it is an integral part of the community. Their end of term concert had the children singing heartily in the playground, ensuring there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

There's a real buzz in the air ahead of Calvià's biggest party. The battle of the Moors versus the Christians comes at the end of a week of celebrations in the south-western town of Santa Ponsa.

It's another bust week of opening parties, live music and even a chance to canoe round an island, as ever there's lots going on here in Mallorca.

The beginning of October saw the world’s best dressage riders come to Mallorca to deliver a show-stopping performance at Spain’s first 5* dressage tournament and one of the most difficult dressage competitions on the planet.