On A Carousel: Mallorca's Fairs

You can tell that summer has shifted into autumn. The fiestas cease to be fiestas and become fairs. The transition is all but seamless. The fairs are fiestas without the religion. It is replaced by a different religion - that of commerce. The Mallorcan fair, such as that in Alcúdia this past weekend, substitutes the worship of images being carted through the streets with a bowing before the polished icons of agricultural machinery. For what in summer might have been a Saint John, in autumn read a John Deere.

The Mallorcan fair has something of the English country fair. It's the village fête colliding with the landed gentry. Horses, a touch of medievalism, stands for this or that, local delicacies fortunately not being judged by a Maggie vomiting in front of a Judy. On top of this are the trappings of the fairground, the carousels and dodgems, the exhibitions of government departments, shows for boys and their toys - classic cars and trial bikes - and of course the stuff of the land, such as the tractors.

Just as the fiestas are a reclaiming of the past, so also are the fairs. A key difference is that the fairs are a reminder of Mallorca's pre-industrial age, i.e. the time before mass tourism. They are as much a celebration of an agrarian past (and present) as they are an expression of modernity, be this equipment or a DJ's night party. (As with the fiestas, there's always a DJ or several on hand to scratch into the early morning.)

As such, it is appropriate that the fairs take place once the tourists have started to clear off. The reclaiming of the past can be equated to a reclaiming of a present without the hordes cluttering the place up. Moreover, the fairs are representative of a Mallorca that most tourists have no interest in, that of the land.

I say this, but of course plenty of visitors are interested, while the fairs are also symbolic of a "patrimonio" (heritage) that the tourism authorities are keen to make tourists take an interest in. Which does therefore beg the question as to why they don't feature more prominently.

Come to Mallorca for its fairs. In November you can nip from one to the other, as they coincide or follow on. Pollensa and Muro, Inca's Dijous Bo and Sa Pobla. In the case of each of these fairs - Pollensa less than the others perhaps - it is the land which is the point of them. Dijous Bo has its traditional and huge farm market. No towns are more synonymous with a Mallorcan agricultural heritage than Muro or Sa Pobla. They still are, given that they are centres for potato-growing and market gardening. Muro is taking this culture further with the laudable revamp of the ethnology museum to depict rural life pre-tourism.

The local agriculture industry may have declined, but after tourism and construction it is still significant in terms of the island's economy. It is significant in a different way, in that it is an indigenous industry. It hasn't been artificially created. It is, if you like, the real Mallorca, one that isn't so far removed from the present; it is a recent past to which the fairs provide an important link.

But the significance of the fairs seems to be lost on those who would like to promote this heritage. As ever, the promotion of the fairs is inherently parochial; it talks to the converted, those who know what to expect and when to expect it. A few years ago, I mentioned to someone in Puerto Pollensa, a Brit, that the Alcúdia fair had been on. He hadn't known about it. Therefore he hadn't known about the horses. His daughters would have loved to have seen them. And this wasn't a tourist. He was a resident.

As far as tourism promotion goes, the fairs hardly get a look in. Yet at a fair you can typically encounter "alternative" aspects of tourism that are supposed to hold so much promise, such as gastronomy, Mallorcan produce, wines and so on, topped off by the traditions of giants, "big heads", pipers and dance. They are, or should be, showpieces for the towns and a tourism ideal. But they are not. And you have to ask why not.


The local fairs are not like this:




Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.