That's Not Fair

The summer fiestas start to fade, but as they do, they merge with and morph into another form of tradition - the fair. This is a seamless continuum of event that will be reversed at Christmas and into the new year. No event more symbolises the transition from summer to the autumnal fair than the Binissalem Vermar. It yearns for and does not want to lose the slowly disappearing summer by its insistence on fiesta but accepts the time of year with the celebration of the grape harvest. Vermar means grape harvest.

The Binissalem event is as drawn out as the Can Picafort August fiesta, but, unlike that summer party, its length enables it to straddle seasons; it starts in summer and ends in autumn. It is equinoctial fiesta. The Vermar, a vinous grand tasting, treads grapes and presents a battle of almost festishistic down-and-dirty rolling in crushed fruit. Binissalem, the home also of the dry-stone wall fiesta, is the centre of rural celebration; its parties are statements of difference. Yet one wonders if the Vermar may continue at the time of the turn of the seasons. Climate change, so we are told, is leading to grape ripening occurring earlier and to new challenges to wine-makers. Spain has more land devoted to vines than any other country. Rising temperatures threaten not only the grape industry but also the fiestas.

The autumn fair is something that can be found in many towns across the island. Alcúdia has its own fair at the start of October. But being a Mallorcan event, it cannot dispense with the trappings of the fiesta. Accordingly, alongside the farm machinery, the stands and the animals are the giants, the folk dance and the inevitable night party with its DJs and bands, raging from the old-town centre and keeping the neighbours awake. At the fair are all manner of local curiosities - from fans and hats to custom cars of eccentric design and highly-tuned engines. The fairs are also occasions for the island to show off - governmental publicity stunts for the environment and tourism and industry's wares in the form of, for example, Mallorcan wines. They are fine events, but one wonders quite what they achieve. Alcúdia's fair bears similarities each year. It is though they are events for preaching to the already knowing or converted. But they, like the fiestas, are tradition. And tradition goes an awfully long way in Mallorca.

For information on both the Vermar and the Alcúdia Fair, go to the What's On Blog - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.

And if, in wet and miserable summer Britain for instance, you are wondering whether climate change is all but a figment of the imagination, try this ... Tucked away in a piece in "The Diario" the other day was a thing which reported the views of a Nobel prize winner. He says that south-west Europe, which includes Mallorca, could anticipate an increase in average temperatures of up to six degrees over the next six years. Six degrees! Over six years! Is he kidding? Presumably he isn't. But if it were to be the case, then frankly I think we should be extremely worried. And quite why this has not been more widely reported, I am not sure. Six degrees. It's just not fair; perhaps they'll have to shift all the fairs to December if that's the case.

QUIZ
Yesterday's title - the single "The Gap" wasn't that good, so instead here is something that was - The Thompson Twins, "All Fall Out" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y_91nGEDYw). Today's title - this is a line from a current song; she's still a rock star and she's a colour.

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