There hadn’t been a formal announcement but all the indications pointed to there being no Moors and Christians battle for a second summer in a row. However, a meeting last week of the Felib federation of town halls had sparked off rumours that the battle on August 2, the climax to Pollensa’s La Patrona fiestas, would be taking place.
Felib set out guidelines for summer fiestas, but the rumours had failed to take account of the fact that mass events were not included in these guidelines. The Moors and Christians most definitely fall into the mass category.
The rival factions jostling each other along the narrow streets hardly equates to any social distancing and could not be contemplated unless arrangements were to be made to permit Moors and Christians with fully vaccinated proof on their digital Covid certificates, masks suitably designed in a sixteenth century style and great buckets of hand sanitiser every ten metres.
The councillor for fiestas, Josep Lluís Pons, who won’t exactly have been overstretched for the past year, announced on Thursday that there will be no Moors and Christians. However, and as if to justify his lessened fiestas’ responsibilities, he stated that there is “much more to the patron saint festivities than the Moors and Christians”. There will be more concerts than usual, with all events to be held with limited capacity.
There is indeed more to the fiestas than the battle, but this is what La Patrona is most associated with, to say nothing of the likes of the White Party. But that’s Covid for you, I’m afraid, and Puerto Alcudia offers another clear example of this. The Sant Pere fiestas that start next week are a shadow of their normal selves - no flotilla, no fireworks, no parties. In Muro, though, they will be letting fireworks off for Sant Joan.
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