What's On?: Who knows?

Among other things, the day job (mine) currently involves being keeper of the Bulletin's What's On. Pretty simple job, you might think. Up to a point it is, but there is a great deal that makes it anything but simple.

I wouldn't claim that this coverage is comprehensive. Selectivity is applied. For example, does anyone want or need to know that the local indie band is playing at a bar no one's ever heard of in Ariany or Lloret de Vistalegre? Perhaps they do. In which case, do let me know. On balance, however, listing every gig, dance night or whatever may not be called for. So, comprehensive it is not, but it is reasonable to say that the coverage is far more complete and coherent than other sources, and that's because gathering all this stuff isn't straightforward and requires a fair amount of digging in order to find it in the first place and then to confirm exactly what it is and when it is taking place.

Much of what happens on the island can be placed in a calendar because it is always the same. This applies to fiestas or fairs. However, the dates aren't always the same. It is necessary to know that, for instance, the La Beata processions in Santa Margalida and Palma are, respectively, held on the first Sunday of September and the third Saturday of October. So long as you know this, then things are simple enough, except of course when they suddenly go and completely change the date. Local elections are one reason why this can happen, and a fiesta/fair that is normally pencilled in for around 20 May ends up taking place some time in June.

Inconvenient though this is, one is at least aware of the fair/fiesta looming on the what's on calendar, and so off one trots - not physically but via the internet - to whatever source for further information seems most appropriate, and more often than not, this will be the town hall.  

There are, it must be said, certain town halls which are rubbish when it comes to imparting information about their events. Eventually you might find it, buried within all the town hall website junk about recycling, tax payments and courses for teaching Catalan. Others are much better and no more so than the ones which, on going to their websites, have a pop-up announcing the fiesta/fair/whatever it is. Here is where life should be very simple, Generally it is, but not always.

As an example, Campos has its sobrassada thing going on next week. The town hall has produced a nice-looking PDF with all the information you might want except for the fact that it tells you about restaurants participating in its gastronomy do without actually saying when this is. Attempting to put two and two together, off one goes to Mr. Google for some assistance, and you seemingly find it, only to discover that you are looking at something from 2012.

Not giving precise times and dates is just one trial that one has to endure. A further one is that what might look to be a fairly accurate source of information turns out not to be. The regional government, for example, has a calendar of what it calls fairs and markets. This, by the way, isn't produced by the tourism ministry but by the ministry of employment, commerce and industry. Issued each year, it has a couple of iterations before being declared "definitive", which it might be if it didn't miss out ones or say that some are "sense determinar" (undetermined), as in when they take place.

Then you might come across an event which gives barely any information. No location, or no time, or no price (if there is one). Or there can be conflicting information as to all these. It's at this point that one begins to lose the will to live. Why should it be so difficult to include something as basic as a venue or a time? But, ever diligent, one investigates further. Facebook might help, and it often does. If a particular artist/performer/band has a date to play somewhere, they generally speaking know, and know rather better than the originator of the incomplete information.

These are just some indications as to why putting what's on information together isn't always a straightforward task and why one has the feeling at times that, despite all the talk about cultural promotion and what have you, there are too many town halls, regional bodies and others who are failing in a mission to inform. Do they really want people to know? You do sometimes wonder. 

Amidst this incoherence, there are mercifully some shining beacons of informativeness. Hats off, therefore, to the likes of Valldemossa and Felanitx town halls and their comprehensiveness in issuing summer information. If only they were all like them.