The Very Best Of The North Of Mallorca

The coming week demonstrates just how vibrant popular culture is in the north of the island. It is a week marked by two festivals and one of the grandest of fiesta occasions not only in the north but on the whole island. The Sa Pobla Jazz Festival starts today, the first concert for the Pollensa Music Festival is next Saturday, and on Wednesday - and really needing no introduction - it is the Moors and Christians battle in Pollensa. It is a week during which the north shows itself off to Mallorca and beyond.

The Sa Pobla Jazz Festival celebrates its twenty-third staging. The festival, rather like Pollensa's, ran into some problems during the years of economic crisis. They were financial. The festival has long prided itself on attracting international artists and on presenting them for free. Such a principle was almost inevitably going to run into obstacles at some point, which is what happened. The cost of the artists, of their travel and their accommodation was just one of the financial concerns. So much so that the festival was threatened. Until, that is, sponsorship and collaborative arrangements were put in place. A brief dalliance with charging (a meagre three euros) no longer applies. The concerts are once more free.

This year's festival shows how it constantly evolves. There is a return to spacing out the main concerts rather than their being concertinaed into successive days, but there is also a whole series of "off festival" concerts, which means that the whole season lasts much longer than previously. From today until Sunday, 27 August there will be a concert every evening in the Plaça Major.

Starting things off is veteran saxophonist Ernie Watts. His remarkable CV owes much to legendary drummer Buddy Rich. Watts was the lead sax player in the Rich orchestra. Over the years he has played with various other jazz legends - Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Pat Metheny - and on a broader level with Marvin Gaye, Frank Zappa and The Rolling Stones. With his quartet he has more than twenty albums under his belt.

The second main concert is on Wednesday, 9 August. Richard Bona - bassist and vocalist - explores the crossover between African music and American/European jazz in a mix called Mandekan Cubano. He himself is from Cameroon rather than Cuba. Guilia Valle is Italian but lives in Barcelona. She is one of the most creative bassists on the whole international jazz scene. Her trio, which performs on 16 August, includes the top-rated Menorcan pianist Marco Mezquida.

A few years ago, the Pollensa Music Festival looked doomed. Founded in 1962 by British violinist Philip Newman with the help of key figures at the Club Pollença and town hall, the festival lost funding from the regional tourism ministry. The government was cutting back because of crisis, and cultural events took a hit.

A great deal of credit for the festival's survival has to go to its former director Joan Valent. World renowned for his film scores, Valent was brought in as its saviour. He called in favours from his many contacts, who included the British pianist and composer Michael Nyman. The festival's future was secured.

But not everyone was happy with how the festival was developing. Valent broadened its scope, even including gastronomy. It was a Mexican theme one year that attracted certain criticism, not least because Valent spends much of his time in Mexico. The criticisms, however, were very unfair. The festival owes a great debt to him, including the fact that he dipped into his own pocket.

No longer the director, the organisation of the festival is now a collaborative exercise, and its focus has returned solely to the concerts. The first, on Saturday, 5 August, features the Gabrieli Consort, a choir and period instrument orchestra founded and led by its artistic director Paul McCreesh. The Gabrieli mission is "to challenge common and accepted perceptions of classical music, and to re-invigorate and innovate in order to sustain the relevance of these great pieces of art in the twenty-first century".

Amidst all this music, we have the climax to Pollensa's La Patrona. The Moors and Christians will battle it out as they do every year from seven in the evening on 2 August. There is total continuity with the final day of the fiestas - it's the same each year - from the Alborada at five in the morning to the Thanksgiving following the battle and to the fireworks. One of the great days of summer, if not the greatest.

MALLORCA TODAY - A new festival for Pollensa

With the appointment of a new director for the Pollensa Music Festival, the anticipation is that the festival will embrace other elements of the arts, notably cinema and literature. The concept should be in place for next year, but a question is: where's the funding coming from?

MALLORCA TODAY - Tourism ministry slammed over Pollensa festival

The Alternativa per Pollença party has criticised the Balearic Government tourism ministry and Carlos Delgado the tourism minister in particular for its "lies" in respect of funding that was due to have been made available for the Pollensa Music Festival this year. The festival had been set to receive 180,000 euros of emergency funding, assistance that the ministry seemed happy to grant on account of what it described as the important promotional role that the festival plays. However, a "contest" established by the ministry to arbitrate on the value of different artistic events has not "scored" the festival highly enough for it to merit the full award, so Pollensa town hall is being left to foot much of a bill that it seemed unable to meet prior to the ministry saying that it would help. It was aid from the ministry that helped to stage this year's festival, which, at one point, looked as though it might not take place. The funding crisis for the festival and the ministry's stance add to uncertainty surrounding the future of the festival.

Language Rules: Don't enter containers!

"All concerts will start punctually at 22:00 hours."

So far not so bad. Bit of a problem with "22:00 hours" and the rather direct tone, which makes it sound like a police report, but then this is all part of the "rules", as will become evident.

"The entry will only be allowed in their precinct in the rest among the pieces of the program, if there is some."

Erm, now things get a tad awkward. We have a definite article "the entry" where a definite article is not required. We also have a "program" that can normally only be a "program" if it is American or a piece of software. We also have a totally meaningless sentence. If there is some what, exactly?

"The persons foreign to the organization can not make pictures, nor filming or enregistramens."

Ok, so the persons are presumably in fact people, as, and again a bit like police reports, persons are not generally the correct plural form. And who are these persons? They're foreigners. Is this right? From abroad. Tourists perhaps. Whoever they are, they "can not" where normally they "cannot" take pictures and then ... then we get a bit lost. The foreigners cannot make "enregistramens". Let me help out. It is in fact Catalan for recordings.

"It is not allowed to smoke in the inside of the courtyard of the Cloister, nor the use of ranges or similar. It is not allowed either to enter any type of container nor devices of telephony."

Right, so I think we get the bit about not smoking, but the use of these ranges or indeed similar. Where is this all going? And then it becomes a guessing game. What containers are there in the Cloister (I assume we are talking about the Cloister)? One is not, for example, allowed to enter a rubbish container or a skip. Is this what is meant? Entering a device of telephony would be some feat. Don't know about you, but I have never tried to physically get inside a mobile phone.

"The entry/ticket of those persons who use a non appropriate wardrobe in relation/relationship to/in the act will not be allowed."

Hmm. So someone or some persons come along with a wardrobe that is, oh I don't know, is it from IKEA perhaps? If it were from the grand El Corte Inglés department store would this be appropriate? The police report seems to have returned as well. Persons or persons unknown in a non appropriate (should of course be inappropriate) wardrobe and being caught in the act. Fine, it's becoming clearer. If you're caught in the act with your inappropriate wardrobe, then you are not allowed. Allowed to do what? Or allowed in maybe? Yep, I think it's allowed in.

Look, I could go on with all of this, but I imagine you have got the drift by now. This mangling of the English language comes from the ominously presented "General Rules" for the Pollensa Music Festival. Actually getting to these rules is a challenge in itself. Go to the website for the festival and the home page is that from 2010, so you might be inclined to give up. But if you click English, you come to 2011 and eventually to the rules.

There are several points about all this. One is that the publicity is still so poor that they haven't got round to changing the home page. The second is the sheer pomposity of some of these "rules", assuming you can understand them. They just go to reinforce what I have said about the limited appeal of the festival. They are designed to deter not to attract. And thirdly, there is of course the fact that the English is total gobbledegook.

This is an international event. Allegedly. English is the usual international language. Why on earth can't they find someone - from Britain or another English-speaking country, of whom there are many knocking around Pollensa - to spend a few minutes translating the Klingon that has been provided into English? Probably because they might have to pay someone, and they haven't got any money. It is, however, a dreadful indictment. You can understand a restaurant getting its English cocked up (actually you can't understand, because they could also get a native-speaker to give it the once-over), but this is a bloody music festival. Prestigious, so they say. The most prestigious in Mallorca. They're having a laugh.

You despair, you really do despair.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Party's Over: Fiestas

The threat of cuts to fiesta programmes is becoming a reality. Pollensa town hall is considering scrapping the street party of the night of 1 August that runs on into the early hours of 2 August, the day of the Moors and Christians battle that is the climax to the town's Patrona festivities.

Mayor Tomeu Cifre has said that something has to give. If not the street party, then other things would have to go, one possibility being the "marxa fresca" (the white party) that is normally held on the night before the street party.

You might ask what the difference is between these two parties. Both are, after all, held in the streets and squares of Pollensa. The marxa fresca is more an open-air disco in the Plaça Major, whereas the street party of 1 August involves three squares holding rock and dance music concerts. The cost alone of staging this street party, according to the mayor, is 40,000 euros; 40,000 euros the town hall simply hasn't got.

The funding crisis for cultural events in Pollensa nearly claimed this year's music festival. While the previous town hall administration was tardy, to blame it entirely for the disorganisation is unfair. The new tourism ministry has ridden to the music festival's rescue in providing emergency funds, the ministry of the last government having blocked funding.

The town hall was short of nearly two hundred thousand euros for the music festival, money that had traditionally been forthcoming from the government. Though the new tourism minister, Carlos Delgado, has assured his support for the music festival, he has also made it perfectly clear that an examination of grants to events from the government is going to be undertaken - in an as objective fashion as possible. In other words, there can be no guarantee that the music festival, along with any other recipient of government cash, will be helped out so generously in future, if at all.

In the case of the music festival, why has the tourism ministry been helping to fund it? I raised the question before. What does it really do for tourism? Well, come on, what does it do? Anyone able to give a firm answer? I would very much doubt it. If any ministry should be putting its hands into its pockets, then it should be that for culture.

In terms of the economic resources directed towards fiestas or festivals and of the direct economic benefits from tourism, to justify funding in the name of tourism is sophistry.

In Pollensa the mayor has also said that the budget for this year's fiestas, well down in any event on what is needed, will see 30,000 euros directed towards the fiestas in Puerto Pollensa, both the recent "feria del mar" and the upcoming Virgen del Carmen.

The town hall has 130,000 euros in all at its disposal. Patrona in the old town gets the lion's share of the budget (100,000 euros), yet, with the exception of the Moors and Christians battle, Patrona doesn't necessarily attract huge numbers of tourists. The events in the port, on the other hand, do, for the very good reason that this is where most of the tourists are to be found.

This underlines the fact that, for all the talk of fiestas as traditional events which appeal to tourists, tourists are not the primary target. They are events for the local population; as is the case with the music festival as well. There is nothing at all wrong with this, but, and despite the music festival being a different category of event to fiestas, Delgado is absolutely right to be taking a hard look at grants. If by doing so, he sends out a message to town halls that they need to apply greater realism, then he will have done a great service.

To come back to the street party, there is a further reason for its possibly being scrapped, and that is the problems it causes. Increasingly, it has become an excuse for an almighty great piss-up - a botellón - and the ambience is less than pleasant. Calls have been made, for instance, for people to desist from using the streets as toilets.

In Sa Pobla they dropped their own street party last year. Similar reasons were cited to those in Pollensa where there has been disquiet expressed as to the fact that the fiestas have lost their sense of tradition among young people and simply become the launch pad for drunkenness and misbehaviour. So, Pollensa town hall has more than one agenda when it comes to abandoning the street party, but overriding this is the fact that the fiestas have needed to be scrutinised more intensely. It's a great shame that economic crisis has necessitated this, but it is long overdue.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

As it's the fiesta season, more on fiestas following on from yesterday.

Financial reality is biting. The budgets for some towns' fiestas have been cut. Pollensa is apparently reducing its budget by some 25%. This in itself is quite an achievement given that the town hall has still to approve its budgets for 2009, but whatever. The music festival is unaffected, it is not seeing a reduction. Let us be thankful for this. Otherwise there might not be the wonder of, er, Tony Hadley. Alcúdia, meanwhile, will be exerting "control" to ensure that there are no excess costs. The same sort of control that led to the Can Ramis fiasco perhaps. But let's give them the benefit of the doubt.

If there may be some cuts to the likes of Virgen del Carmen and Patrona, these will not be to the cultural highlight that is the sophistication of the Pollensa Music Festival. It is a fine series of events, but whether it can be bracketed together with the fiestas is questionable. It is cultural and traditional only in the sense that tradition can be said to be less than 50 years old; it is cultural (Mallorca-wise) only in that there is a smattering of local talent; it is cultural (internationally) in that it is cultured and of a musical culture and tradition.

The fiestas are the epitome of local culture and tradition. For there to be cuts to their budgets is sensible in the current climate, but is not sensible in that the fiestas represent precisely the type of "alternative" tourism attraction that the Mallorcan tourist authorities keep banging on about. One might, however, legitimately ask whether less lavish fiestas and therefore spend would materially affect tourism in terms of numbers. I have my doubts.

But to come back to the music festival. This differs to the fiestas in one very major way. Though there is a budget for its staging, there are also revenues generated. Tony Hadley, for example, will set you back 40 of your European euros or 30 if you prefer to slum it in the one and nines. Only one event during the festival is free. The fiestas do not generate revenues, well not directly.

At Puerto Alcúdia's Sant Pere fiesta there was, for instance, the Mallorcan performer Tomeu Penya and his ensemble. The Orquestra Mediterrani was at Sant Pere; it will also be at Virgen del Carmen to serenade the fiesta-goers after the sun has gone down. These are just two examples of perfomers. Then there is all the rest, especially the fireworks. It's all free. And there's nothing wrong with that; the more that's free the better. The only problem is that someone has to pay. There's no such thing as a free lunch for the elderly fishermen of Alcúdia - for example. They (Pollensa town hall) can probably get away with not cutting the music festival budget because they're getting something into the coffers; the only something they get into the coffers for the fiestas are local taxes, some grants and maybe some sponsorship or some badgering of local businesses.

Conspicuous by its absence in the list of town halls mentioned in "The Diario" is that of Santa Margalida. Last year, some of you may recall, it was reported that the town hall was planning to increase its fiesta budget by well over a half from the 512,000 euros spent in 2008. It will be interesting to see if it has; it will also be little short of scandalous if it has. Or rather, it wouldn't be if there were a mechanism for recouping at least some of the outlay, and not through local taxes. I have no good practical suggestion as to how, but some sort of levy might not go amiss. If the fiestas are to remain and if they are to become more spectacular with ever more money going up in smoke in the form of fireworks, then those who enjoy them should be prepared to put their hands in their pockets.

The alternative view is that, if nothing else, the town halls should exist for staging grand fiestas. Perhaps that is where both the problem and the solution lie. Budgets for fiestas may be having to be cut, but one does wonder about the waste that leads to these cuts being necessary. Control, anyone?


Incidentally, the programme for Virgen del Carmen this year is now available on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Marvin Gaye, "What's Going On?": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DtUMa0FtuWY.

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