Varied programme for Majorca Day

PALMA
THE Council of Majorca has this year devised a programme of activities for Majorca Day which “reinforces the symbols” of Majorcan identity. It includes concerts, lectures and open days at Council headquarters.

Majorca Day will be celebrated on Wednesday September 12. The fact that the programme will “reinforce symbols of Majorcan identity” was underlined yesterday by the Council of Majorca's councillor for the Presidency, Cosme Bonet, and the director of Institutional Relations, Pere Fullana, during the presentation of the programme to the media.

The activities will run from September 1 to September 16.
The traditional formal act of celebration on September 12 will take place in the Teatro Principal and will coincide with the 150th anniversary of the theatre's creation. The ceremony has been held in La Misericordia for the past six years because the theatre was being refurbished.

The slogan for Majorca Day this year is “Live it”, with the objective, said Bonet, that as many people as possible will take part and residents will learn about the Council of Majorca, in addition to the symbols which “represent the island and form its identity”. The Council will not, however, be handing out free Majorcan flags, and has called on people to fly those which were distributed last year from their balconies again.

So that the citizens will be aware that the Council of Majorca is “their institution”, the Council will organise open days from September 7 to 9, while on the subject of history there will be a series of lectures about the island in the 13th and 14th centuries, given by professors from the Balearic University (these will take place on September 3 to 5).

The programme will start on Saturday September 1 with the exhibition “Afrikan” by the photographer Pep Bonet in Ses Salines, and will also include various musical activities such as concerts by the Council Minstrels and the Federation of Music Bands.

Maia Planas, added Fullana, will also give a concert in the Monasterio de la Real.
In addition to this the usual sporting activities will take place, ending on September 16 with the trotting racing Gran Premio in the Son Pardo stadium.

On September 12 the traditional floral offering to the kings Jaume II and Jaume III, whose tombs are behind the main alter in the Cathedral, will take place and this will be of great symbolic value, said Fullana.

That same day, at 8.30pm, the formal act of Majorca Day will start in the Teatro Principal in Palma, with the prize giving ceremony for the Premios Jaume II, honours and distinctions and a concert by the Balearic Symphony Orchestra.

Other events will include a pop festival, the 40 Principales Cadena Ser, in the Playa de Palma on September 8, and Majorcan dancers at Lluc, lbandsd in Palma's Plaza Mayor on September 15 and a concert by Santiago Auseron and a jazz band on the same day at the Teatro Principal. Fullana said that this year's events are an introduction to the celebrations which the Council is planning next year, celebrating the eighth centenary of the birth of King Jaume I, who conquered Majorca in 1229.