From Wind To Wind: North Mallorca's Year

Wind and floods
January is a month in the north of Mallorca which is punctuated by the excitement for the Sant Antoni fiestas. Not everything went according to plan this year. There was weather.

The night of Sant Antoni Eve - bonfires and all - wasn't disrupted, despite the apparent madness of setting bonfires ablaze when the wind's howling. The closest thing there was to disaster was when an 18-year-old in an Audi decided to drive straight through a Sa Pobla bonfire. It was the next day when things went awry. The Formentor pine had to be transported over land rather than sea, and blessings were called off: Alcudia, Muro and Sa Pobla. Still, the pines were nevertheless climbed, which provoked its own spot of controversy - in Pollensa at any rate. Under-greased, the pine was a doddle, and the contest was all over in a few minutes.

The flooding in January led to the road that runs by the Albufera Nature Park from Playa de Muro to Sa Pobla having to be closed for several days. The Council of Mallorca came and had a look. The relevant councillor, Mercedes Garrido, said that there would be a plan for the road, about which nothing more was heard.

Valls and the cockerel
The Valls ice-cream kiosk saga dragged on. Pollensa town hall had said there would be a tender, then it said that there wouldn't be. It couldn't guarantee that the kiosk (whether in the same place or another) would be for the sale of "artisan" ice-cream or that the award would have to be to a local business; and by local the town hall meant from Pollensa.

The Sant Antoni cockerel (the one at the top of the Pollensa pine) was up for discussion. There was a council motion for the cockerel to be eliminated; 1992 animal-protection law regarding the use of animals in the "human environment" was cited. The motion was defeated. "Shameful," said the Alternativa per Pollença. Nevertheless, the mayor, Miquel Àngel March, who had been in favour of the motion, announced that there won't be a cockerel in January 2018.

Alcudia's name and pressure group
Salvem el Moll, the Puerto Alcudia pressure group, was regularly in the news, taking aim at Alcudiamar, the Balearic Ports Authority and Alcudia town hall. Was the fact that it only had 283 likes on its Facebook page (back in March) an indication of support? Numbers who turned out for its periodic protests barely reached double figures.

Muro town hall copped for some flak over a photo taken during the minute's silence for the Westminster terrorist attack. Of twelve people in the photo, only four had solemn expressions. The others were either smiling or laughing. If nothing else, could the town hall not have chosen another photo for its Facebook page?

Alcudia wanted to give its name to a car. The motor manufacturer Seat was introducing a new model and was looking for somewhere in Spain with a name that had to start with an A. The town hall therefore fired off a letter to Seat's president and advanced the case for the car to be the Seat Alcudia. It wasn't.

The bus station and no confidence
The Puerto Pollensa bus station (which we later learned isn't a bus station; just some bus stops) was finally approved, but not without an unholy row. So heated did things get that two councillors - Miquel Àngel Sureda (Junts) and Marti Roca (now unaccredited, formerly El Pi) - had something of a set-to. Denuncias were being threatened, etc, etc.

Miquel Àngel March, who had faced a possible vote of no confidence some months previously, was confronted with another one. This time, he himself threw down the gauntlet. It was all to do with approving the budget. He lost the vote, but there was never any possibility of his being replaced because the opposition was not in a position to muster sufficient votes. March knew this. The deadline for presenting an alternative to him passed, and so was the budget.

The students and wake park
The so-called Mallorca Island Festival at Bellevue, as each year, left a trail of complaints about noise, behaviour and vandalism. Also as each year, it was studiously ignored by the media. Was this to do with the fact that it was Spanish students causing the complaints? It may only have been three weeks, but there had to be some perspective: three weeks too many for residents denied sleep, for those whose cars were trampled on, for businesses which were robbed, for other businesses which suffered because a regular type of tourist wasn't present.

Members of the Spanish Royal Family came to Alcudia's Wake Park. The Queen Mother, Sofia, would have been among family members with no idea that the park on Lago Menor (aka Lake Placid) was the source of a row with the residents. One community had sent off a letter of complaint to the Costas Authority in Madrid about the noise from the zip system.

José's terrace
There was the war of José's chairs - José as in Bony in Puerto Pollensa. Full enforcement of Pollensa terrace and tables law had become an obsession of the town hall administration. The police turned up one evening in September. There were alternative versions. The police closed the bar. José decided to close it. Typically eccentric postings on Facebook only added to the confusion, but the situation was to settle down.

Salvem el Moll reappeared and was pressurising the town hall into closing the Alcudiamar Botel. Apparently, so it is claimed, there shouldn't be a hotel as such. The town hall said it wanted more information and wouldn't be acting in a "drastic" manner.

Catalonia and Monjo's route
Back at Pollensa town hall, the Catalonia referendum threatened to once more break the ruling pact between the Junts and the UMP. There was a compromise which avoided this, but the president of the UMP resigned in protest over a pro-referendum motion.

Santa Margalida's mayor, Joan Monjo, was livid that there was no tourist tax revenue for an archaeological route. It then emerged that this route would pass by an agrotourism establishment in Muro that is owned by the mayor. Monjo denied that this had anything to do with the project and that the route would in any event be some distance from the hotel.

The winds returned
And the year drew towards a close in similar fashion to how it had begun - with weather. The high winds of Cyclone Bruno contributed to the death of a windsurfer in Alcudia and whipped up a potentially disastrous fire in Puerto Pollensa.

Alcudia's Three Weeks Of Mayhem

The so-called Mallorca Island Festival is over for another year. As each year, it has left a trail of complaints about noise, behaviour and vandalism. Also as each year, it has been studiously ignored by the media. Might this have to do with the fact that it is Spanish students causing the complaints? If British or German counterparts were the protagonists, you can bet that everyone would be told about it.

Some people say, well it is only three weeks, let's have some perspective. True, it is only three weeks, but it is three weeks too many for residents who are denied sleep, for those whose cars are trampled on, for businesses which are robbed, for other businesses which suffer because a regular type of tourist isn't present.

Now it's finished, there is talk that there is just one year left to run on a contract (not that anyone seems to know this for certain), that Bellevue doesn't want to renew it because of all the hassle it causes. And hassle there most certainly is. It is hardly unknown for fire alarms to be deliberately set off in Bellevue blocks, but not with the regularity which occurs when the "festival" is occurring. But hassle isn't the right word for the destruction inside the blocks. Hassle isn't the right word to describe what one understands to be the very low prices paid for the students' all-inclusive accommodation. Hassle isn't the right word to explain the reputation of Bellevue being further sullied on social networks, especially TripAdvisor; and by extension, the reputation of Alcudia.

For BlueBay, which manages the complex, the series of holidays for students does nothing for its reputation. It should be being praised for the long-overdue efforts to try and improve Bellevue. Instead, there are the brickbats that are the consequence of a form of tourism vastly more extreme than anything else which is experienced at Bellevue.

Inevitably, assuming that it is correct that there is just one year left to run, reaction will be to do nothing, an attitude that has prevailed ever since the student holidays started (which was at least in 2013): Mallorca Island Festival has been the name for the past three years; prior to this, it was known as Mallorca without teachers. Timidity is how one might best describe the approach of residents and indeed of businesses. It is a timidity which has been exacerbated by a lack of coordination and mutual support among different groups affected. In a sense, the residents and businesses in and around Bellevue have got what they deserved.

Alcudia town hall is all too aware of what goes on. Numerous have been the individual representations made to the mayor and the town hall. But individuals don't get very far. As with all administrations, they want what they consider to be valid interlocutors, associations with whom they can discuss issues. The failure to create such an association is a reflection of this timidity and of a neglect of community.

The fundamental issue with this festival is the location. Bellevue is probably the only place that could accommodate it. But what has been overlooked is the nature of Bellevue. This became a hotel by accident. It was not originally conceived as a hotel. The campus style of the complex is evidence of what was developed - a single urbanisation named Bellavista. On this urbanisation, as things were to turn out, are hotel apartment blocks and residential apartment blocks. They share the same space.

The principle of coexistence, enshrined in law and for which, at local levels, town halls have responsibilities to guarantee, is an expression of mutual respect. People need to live together. There is give and there is take, but coexistence frowns upon excesses. The principle applies everywhere, but it is especially acute on a single urbanisation and a single space. On the Bellevue complex, the give and take is understood. Of course there is noise. By its very nature there will be. Among the thousands of guests at any one time there will clearly be some who don't behave themselves. But this is, in a way, incidental. It is not organised.

With the festival, there is organisation. And this organisation, because of the offers of ferrying the students to off-site clubs from just before midnight and of ferrying them back again, can only lead to one thing. Noise. Coexistence is one thing. Breaches of bylaws regarding noise are another.

Such was the level of complaints to the 112 service that the call centre, which can geolocate the source of calls, was responding by saying that the local police need to be called. There wouldn't normally be such a response. But what, in all honesty, can the police do? They are stretched enough as it is. Should there be a permanent presence (plus the Guardia)? Both forces have other matters to attend to. They are not to blame, nor is the town hall. The blame lies elsewhere.

* A photo just after dawn on one morning of the so-called festival.

The Disgrace Of Alcudia

It's half past midnight. The fire alarm has been let off in one of the three Fedra buildings on the Bellevue complex. Two security guards are some metres away from the building. They don't react. They continue to chat before eventually wandering towards Fedra. Passing them are a few regular tourists. These are arrivals, trudging the distance from reception, the rumble of the suitcase wheels lost within the ring of the alarm and the roars and screams. These are not cries of fear. These are the sounds of the nightly disgrace of Alcudia.

One guard wears the brown shirt of the security firm that has been hired for the so-called festival. The firm is Tasp Seguridad. According to the festival organisers, Finalia Viajes S.L. (C. Girona 34, Igualada, Catalonia), this firm was established in Mallorca in 1968. It is providing twelve "professionals" who offer cover 24/7. The guard with the brown shirt is with another who wears blue: he is Bellevue. The two explain that there are four security guards for the eight blocks that are to the eastern side of the Bellevue entrance road - the Apollo, Ceres, Diana and Fedra blocks. They all house students from the mainland who are there for the "festival", a marketing term (with registered trademark) for a holiday that has become an excuse for total disruption of normal coexistence in this part of Alcudia, an excuse for vandalism, for excessive drinking, for unacceptable behaviour which matches anything that Arenal or Magalluf can offer.

Finalia, in a letter of 15 February this year, said that the festival is in collaboration with teams of teachers and parents associations as part of a celebration of the end of the school course (baccalaureate). There are no teachers on the site and nor are there any parents. Do these parents know what occurs during the "festival"? Would they be so collaborative if they knew, for instance, about cars being damaged, about shops being robbed, about groups of students doing runners from local restaurants, about regular tourists being jostled and pushed aside in the restaurant, about the nightly screaming, mayhem and chaos that lasts from the middle of June until at least the end of the first week of July?

One of the guards says things are not normal. The behaviour is not normal. Nor is the fact that regular tourists, towards the end of the festival, are being allocated to the blocks most adversely affected, namely Fedra and Diana. What perverse form of hotel administration decrees that these tourists, some with families, should be placed amidst this carnage? They have arrived with the fire alarm going off, with students bawling and roaring, with a scene of bedlam. The guards have as good as given up. What were they ever going to have done? Hundreds of students who come on a rotational basis over the duration of the "festival": the four on the shift are no match for these hundreds. They are helpless, useless, and they know it. They are also regretful. They understand that residents and other tourists are being harmed. Things are not normal. They can do nothing. There are no police, no Guardia. They are alone, as are the residents and tourists.

Someone says that the students are paying fifteen euros a night all-inclusive. If so, is Bellevue really that desperate for clients? Perhaps it is. The hotel's acceptance of this festival (the existence of which was denied by a person on reception when tackled by a resident) merely reinforces Bellevue's chronic reputation for lack of care. The festival drags Alcudia's image further through the mud, a negative image which is largely the fault of Bellevue and Bellevue alone. Why, one wonders, does a company like BlueBay, which manages the complex, have anything to do with this "festival"? It is a hotel chain which, otherwise, has a more upmarket profile, especially elsewhere.

With the regional government trying to convince tour operators not to bring drunken (junk) tourism to the island, it should include Finalia on this list. It probably won't, because what happens in Alcudia is of marginal interest, when compared with Magalluf and Arenal. If this were a tour operator bringing British or German youngsters, the world would know about it. Spanish, and there is general silence. Who, among the media, draws any attention to it? 

The Finalia marketing, as revealed by its February letter, is laughable. It talks about presentations made to parents in which explanations are given about Alcudia's "magnificent beaches" and "the precious church of San Jaime (Sant Jaume)". Thousands of parents, it continues, subsequently opt to visit Alcudia as a result of their children's experiences. Of course they do.

This marketing, as shown on the festival website, includes the "collaborative businesses", some of which aren't businesses, such as the Spanish government, the Balearic tourism ministry, the government in Catalonia. Are these administrations willing collaborators in drunken, excessive, junk tourism? Are they giving their blessings to chaos and the breakdown of order? Are they collaborating in the annual disgrace of Alcudia?

* The photo is from the Jolly Roger Facebook page. It shows a whole load of students trooping past the Lago Menor en route to Hidropark. Tourists at the waterpark, it has been reported, have opted to leave because of the "invasion" which regularly occurs.