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.

What's Going On?

Wotzup? Wotz ' appenin'? Wotz t' do?

Things to do, events, fiestas, special days, fairs. There is a lot going on. The editor of "The Bulletin" on their website today makes this point, and he's right. He is also right to point out that getting access to information as to what is going on is not always that easy. This information falls into different categories - that like live music which takes place in bars or clubs and that like the local events and fiestas mostly all of which come under the auspice of the local authorities.

Are visitors generally interested in these sort of events, these fiestas? Are they not more interested in just staying in the bar and spending evenings getting pleasantly pissed? Well some are. Quite a lot are in fact. But quite a lot are interested in these events. Among things that I have something of a business association with is a mobile phone information service that is largely for Thomson (and First Choice) customers. The company that runs this tells me that one of the most important areas of information that they supply is that about events.

It's an interesting discovery and it confirms the fact that people, when on holiday, do want things to do. They are not all just content to stick around the pool, to stay on the beach or to sit all evening in a bar. The demand for excursions backs this up. But the local events are often poorly publicised. I recall saying that my local authority, Muro, appeared to do nothing for those of its residents who live in the beach area of the municipality (as opposed to the town itself) in terms of information provision regarding the main summer fiesta. Even the tourist office had no information until more or less the fiesta week had started. And Muro is not the only offender. Alcúdia and Pollensa can be just as slow, and when they do get information out it is - sometimes - only in Mallorquín. I have translated such information personally and put it onto the websites. It shouldn't have to fall to the likes of myself to do this.

There are people who come to Alcúdia who have no idea that there is a grand fireworks display in the port at the end of the San Pedro week. There are people in Pollensa who have no idea that there is a fair in Alcúdia in October. You almost wonder if the local authorities would rather people stayed away, especially if they are visitors. I'm sure that is not the case, but the information provision could be better and could be made longer in advance than it currently is. In my experience, though the fiestas and fairs normally occupy the same time slots every year, the actual programmes are released at short notice. Maybe they just cannot finalise them earlier, though I find that hard to believe.

The editor asks the local authorities to post this information on websites, and here he raises another interesting point because some of the town hall websites are next to useless. I am still trying to make sense of www.pollensa.com. They do a big job in publicising it, but frankly they're wasting their money. Muro? Forget it. Catalan only. Playa de Muro also has a fair amount of dosh spent on publicising its own site. Fine if you want to book a hotel but no more. Alcúdia, a more switched-on authority than the other two, but it isn't much better. So I guess it will just have to keep falling to the likes of myself to make the information available. It shouldn't be like this.


QUIZ
Rodgers and Hammerstein wrote "You'll Never Walk Alone" ("Carousel") which of course Gerry and the Pacemakers popularised and then the Kop took it up. And so, apart from the Liverpool connection, what do Gerry and the Pacemakers have in common with Frankie Goes To Hollywood? Yesterday's title - Nike. Today's title? Album by?

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