In A City That Never Sleeps

There must, you imagine, be a point in the early morning of the second of August when DJ Enigma or Pako passes by a group of worthy pollencin ancients who look aghast at the ponytail and eyebrow piercing and who are weary from the noise of a night of endless partying in three whole squares of the old town, but determined to be there at five am for the traditional alborada. Fiestas are all about the old meeting the new, but not necessarily in the streets as one lot gets up and the other makes its way to bed. Except, that is, in Pollensa. Why anyone feels the need to get up for a tradition that was invented at the end of the nineteenth century in order to herald the final day of the fiesta week is lost on me. They could just as easily, you would think, pack it all in to thirty minutes at some sensible hour, like ten o'clock; time enough for a decent snooze and a lump of lard and sugar together with a stiff hierba for breakfast. But not with Patrona.

The locals have to suffer for their fiesta art, and that may well mean not having had any sleep ahead of a day that features make-believe Christians and Moors rampaging through the streets and a bloody great fireworks do at midnight. It might not be so bad, but the night before there was another grand party - the marxa fresca - that techno-ed across the Plaça Major. Actually, techno may not be accurate. There is a youtube of last year's marxa and that's got Madness playing. So much for traditional Catalan house or whatever the flavour of the dance world is these days. At least on the night of the Wednesday, the provocatively entitled "Decibels Pollença 2009" is confined to the footy pitch. No sound limiters there, one supposes. God forbid that an unsuspecting tourist booked his family of toddlers into the Hotel Juma on the Plaça Major in anticipation of a quiet few days of cultural tourism at the end of July and start of August. He'd get culture alright, Pants Breakers on the stage in the square and DJ Full-Attack larging it within easy sleep-shattering distance in the Monnares plaza.

Pollensa town hall, strapped for cash as it has been for several years now so much so that it is running a regular deficit in the region of a million of your European Euros, was meant to have been cutting its fiesta budget this year. Not that you would think that were you to take a look at the schedule for Patrona. It's like a mini-Glastonbury, replete with sound, Quakerist, saving-the-world enviro children's parties and benefits for Rwanda and the like. All that's missing is the mud, which is a shame as it would allow the Batley Townswomen's Guild to re-enact the Moors and Christians.

The simulation, Pythonesque or otherwise, is - in its billing - something of a curiosity, given that the Moors were anything but Moors. They were Turks, intent on turning the inns of Pollensa into kebab restaurants, but Moors is how we must call them. The term "moro" is one commonly used in the local languages; indeed Patrona features a comedy (ho-ho) called "No Hi Hara Moros A La Costa" which translates, more or less, as the coast is clear, i.e. there are no Moors on the coast. It will be one of the events that attracts rather fewer tourists than others, one would guess. Another more obscure feature of this year's Patrona is a "return to the sixteenth century" with music and entertainment of the period. 1550 was the year that the so-called Moors attempted their invasion. At Patrona they're making music to repel Moors by. They're making rather more music than that - 14 DJs, 20 groups of different sorts, plus some Mallorcan traditional music and that stuff from the 1500s.

Patrona - the fiesta of the sleepless.

Information on Patrona 2009 is on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.


QUIZ
Today's title - ol' blue eyes, or is that red eyes, is back.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Childhood Dreams

Every year the people of Pollensa gather to vote in the current-day players of an act that is over 450 years old; the Joan Mas and Dragut of the Christians and Moors role game during the Patrona fiestas. They gather not in the Plaça Major but in the Plaça Vella (the old square), a small area that is the scene of some of the more traditional aspects of Pollensa life; it is the Plaça Vella that is the site, for example, of the climbing of the soapy pine tree during Sant Antoni in January. It is a matter of local pride for the youngish male Pollensa citizens to be acclaimed pine-tree victor or Mas or Dragut. This year's Joan, Pep Martorell, said (as reported in "The Diario") that it has been his "dream since small" to be Joan. Some small boys dream of being a train driver, others of playing at the Camp Nou, others, it seems, of being the vanquisher of the Moors. Small boys grow up, but they still enjoy small boy games, such as running around the town pretending to be pirates or defenders. It beats a computer game version, but like all games it is virtual. They are virtual, pretend, play-act Joans and Draguts. But they are also pretend entertainers. Not on the stages of Pirates but on the streets of a real town, steeped in history and antiquity, presenting a show for tourists and residents alike. They should charge an admission fee, for this is historical spectacle performed in a popular fashion by the people for whom it means most, who grow up and live with the tradition, and dream, as small boys, of being the performers.

This is not spectacle stage-managed, choreographed, set to music, served up at a table with a chicken in a basket and a bottle of plonk. This is not removed from context, sanitised and artificial theatre of gleaming entertainers. This is spectacle as real, even if it is virtual; spectacle in context in the very streets of their town. It is an extraordinary tradition. Living theatre created by the people and for the people. Democratically chosen representatives of the local history. Remarkable.


Christians and Moors - what happens
The Christians and Moors event, on 2 August, really gets under way at seven in the evening when Joan and Dragut come together in the Plaça Almoina, Joan calling out to the mother of the angels for assistance for the "Pollencins" in defeating the pirates (led by Dragut). It moves to the church of Sant Jordi and the liberation of women and children held captive in the church. The final "battle" takes place at the football arena Can Escarrintxo where Joan takes the enemy's flag and then leads his men to the main church where the Christians celebrate their victory by giving thanks to La Patrona.


Bellevue - more
It now appears that Thomson is pulling clients out of Bellevue owing to health and safety reasons - as being reported on the forums. This follows the news of a week ago that First Choice was placing clients elsewhere. Now what health and safety reasons might these be? There is sympathy for the hotel, but pretty much everyone locally knows what this is about. The hotel has got a big problem; it could do with some decent PR. In fact, it could do with any PR.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Keane, "Everybody's Changing", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=maKVPe677Jc. Today's title - Canadian-Portuguese female singer from her second album.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)