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 people of Pollenca have been given a reprieve this week as the Miquel Salom photography exhibition that was supposed to run until the 25th of May has been extended until the 7th of June.

On the evening of Friday the 15th there was a gathering of local artisans showing off their wares in the Joan March gardens in front of the Claustro de Santo Domingo. 

Happy New Year, the Three Kings have made their journey to all Majorcan homes. They started with their arrival by boat in the Port of Soller where they were met by hundreds of local children waiting for the sweets and smiles from the Kings and their pages. They knew that this was just the start and that overnight the presents would arrive, delivered by the Kings on camels or donkeys.

Although Sant Pere, or Saint Peter, falls on the 29th June, the town of Andratx allocates over a week of festivities to celebrating their patron saint.

Mallorca has long been a big draw for cyclists from all over the world, colourful teams of road bikers are a common sight all over the island but this weekend bikers of a different breed took over Old Town Pollenca in North Mallorca. No cycle shorts in sight here as lightweight bikes were switched for downhill rigs and Lycra was replaced with full body armour; the downhill mountain bikers were in town!

If you are looking for something to do this weekend in Mallorca you are spoilt for choice. There are so many fairs, festivals, concerts and shows on over the next few days and you can find details about them all in our Events Calendar but for a run down of our top five read on....

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.

The Soller valley contains the village of Fornalutx - high above Soller it nestles into the mountains and its name literally translated means ‘the oven of the sun’. Fornalutx has it all – prizes for being the prettiest village in Spain and accolades from visitors and travel writers that come from all over the world.

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

The people of Mallorca, like their mainland brothers, love a fiesta. Almost every weekend there seems to be a saint or a historical event that requires face paint and explosions, or at the very least a market. The Fiesta Sant Joan in Mallorca celebrates the life of John the Baptist and in Majorca Sant Joan is a very big deal. Every other street, shop and restaurant seems to be named after him, he's the Patron Saint of four towns and he even has a town named after him.

The festivities of San Juan kicked off on the evening of 23rd June with a wonderful family-friendly atmosphere in front of Palma's majestic Cathedral. A band playing traditional Mallorcan music spurred on the crowds who needed little encouragement to get involved in the folk dance known as Ball de Bot.

This Friday 8th July Bar Flexas will once again be hosting its mad, fab and outrageously camp fiesta in Parc de la Mar. With cabaret-style shows and plenty of live music, the flamboyant presenters are sure to have you on your feet singing and dancing by the end of the night.

Easter week or 'Semana Santa' as it is known is a very important time in Soller. The town divides up into fraternities – groups of people attached to a local church who have an affinity to a particular group of penitents. The penitents dress in the robes of their particular fraternity and this includes wearing pointed hats, reminiscent of the Ku Klux Klan, with eye holes cut out and the rest of the face covered.

This fun fair (or Feria to the Spanish) is a large-scale amusement park located in Son Fusteret, on the outskirts of Palma de Mallorca between February 27th-April 10th 2016.