THREE CHEERS...

...for Palma's World Folk Dance Festival which ended in spectacular style last weekend after giving enormous pleasure both to the participants and to the visitors and residents who watched the performances of the dancers on the special stages set up around the centre of Palma. It is a mark of the prestige that this Festival commands throughout the world that even in a year of economic recession a total of 58 groups make their way to Palma from more than 30 countries. Credit for the appeal and success of this wonderful peace-promoting and life-enhancing event must go to the local authorities and tourist organisations which support it and to Tomeu Bosch and Anne Simpson who since 1987 have undertaken the huge task of communicating with folk dance groups, governments and embassies all over the world and arranging the formidable logistical problems of the event itself. The Bulletin, too, played its part with comprehensive information about the programmes. The Balearics has a long tradition of folk dancing and one of its pioneers is still recognised in the Festival by a prize bearing the name of Bartomeu Ensenyat.