The fairs start to come thick and fast. As well as Llucmajor's, Alcudia has a fair over the first weekend of the month. When this fair was revived in 1989, the programme included a children's party, which turned out to be a group of bigheads called S'Estol Rei en Jaume.
Also over the first weekend are the Valldemossa Moors and Christians, the Esporles sweet fair, Alaro's artisan fair, Sant Joan's botifarró festival and the Saladina Art Fest in Can Picafort.
Calas de Mallorca, meanwhile, sneaks in some fiestas at the start of the month.
As the month progresses, and in order, there are fairs in Algaida, Cala Rajada (the Fresh Fish Weekend) and Lluc; Consell, Felanitx (the paprika fair) and Santanyi; the Inca fairs start as the Llucmajor fairs finish; and Campos and Porreres have their fairs.
Palma's procession of the "triumphal carriage" for La Beata, Santa Catalina Thomàs, is the third Saturday of the month.
Fira B is described as a professional market for music and the performing arts in the Balearics.
The Balearic Symphony Orchestra's season at Palma Auditorium starts in October and continues until May. There are typically fifteen Thursday concerts during the season, some of which are repeated on Fridays in Manacor.
There is a Jazz Voyeur Club in Palma, and there is also a Jazz Voyeur Festival. The 2019 festival is the twelfth.
The Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival in late October has a mission for "bridging cultures - bridging people" in shaping a creative community for independent filmmakers "to network, be inspired and thrive in this exciting Mediterranean island paradise".
Sport
The Legends Cup ATP Champions Tour is at the Palma Sport & Tennis Club in early October. The 2019 tournament featured, among others, Goran Ivanisevic, Carlos Moya and Mats Wilander.
The Palma Marathon will be held on October 11 in 2020.
NOVEMBER
The Inca fairs, four of them, reach their climax in mid-month with the biggest of all Majorca's fairs, Dijous Bo (Good Thursday). A reason why Dijous Bo is on a Thursday and not a Sunday is that the weekend before it takes place is reserved for celebrations for Santa Maria la Major. The main parish church is named Santa Maria la Major and inside it is an image of the Virgin Mary holding a lily in one hand and the baby Jesus in the other. These celebrations include Inc'Fern, a demons' correfoc along streets in the centre of the town.
Other fairs in November are Marratxi's autumn fair at the start of the month; Muro and Pollensa's are over the second weekend; then come Caimari (with its olives), Es Capdella in Calvia and Llubi (the honey fair). Towards the end of November are Santa Maria's Festa de Vi Novell (Majorcan nouveau), Mancor de la Vall's mushroom fair and Sa Pobla's rice fair.
The principal mushroom protagonist in Mancor is the "esclata-sang", which roughly translates as blood bursts. This is due to its reddish juice. The esclata-sang is the most prized of all mushrooms that grow in Majorca, and you need local knowledge to know where to find it.
Sa Pobla is where most of Majorca's potatoes are grown, but it also has a thriving rice industry; hence its autumn fair is dedicated to rice. The cultivation goes back to the Muslim era, when rice was grown in the Albufera wetlands. Following the conquest in the thirteenth century, the Catalans stopped growing it. While there may have been some cultivation in the intervening centuries, it wasn't until the start of the twentieth that a serious attempt was made. This proved to be something of a fiasco because of serious flooding and increased salt levels in the wetlands.
It took almost ninety years for rice-growing to become truly established. The bomba short-grain variety is a key ingredient for "arròs brut", which means dirty rice and therefore does little to convey how delicious this traditional rice dish is.
Alternatilla Jazz in Mallorca is a season of concerts from late November into December. The venues are in Palma and elsewhere in Majorca. Each season includes some musicians from a specific country. In 2018 this was Poland, and this year it is Portugal.
TaPalma is a five-day gastronomic route at the end of November which invites diners to sample tapas at some of Palma's leading restaurants. Before the route starts there is a special tapas and cocktails event at the Palacio de Congresos convention centre.
Otherwise in November, the build-up to Christmas starts. The lights go on in Palma, the city's Fira de Nadal (Christmas market) begins, as does the Weihnachtsmarkt in Santa Ponsa and Escorca and in December are the rest of the Christmas markets.
For more information www.mallorca.es
