Residents of the Plaça de Toros district in Palma, Mallorca

Residents of the Plaça de Toros district. | Teresa Ayuga

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma18/12/2021 13:35
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A Palma residents association, Coliseum, is considering raising a petition to call on the town hall to create a green area by the Plaça de Toros bullring. The association's president, Juan Antonio Pérez, says that they want the land that surrounds the arena to be for public use. "In cities such as Madrid and Seville, they have removed the walls and opened the arenas up to the public."

An adjoining plot, some 6,000 square metres, was due to have been expropriated by the town hall. The model of the city department started the procedure two years ago, but the residents haven't heard anything since.

At the assembly for neighbourhood associations, the green area has been raised, Pérez stressing that they don't want it to be like a new S’Escorxador, "where there are hardly any trees". "We want it to be a green zone, a small lung in this part of Palma."

The bullring is surrounded by walls and grilles and has a semi-abandoned appearance. "We are calling for it to be taken into public ownership. There are fewer and fewer activities and it is deteriorating due to lack of maintenance."

While bullfights have become rare, there are some concerts and mass events, such as that for Spanish students in the summer, which proved to be a super-spreader event.

Pérez explains that the bullring is like an amplifier. The association was formed precisely because of this, to campaign against the noise of concerts and of the disassembly of stages. The town hall established that concerts had to end by midnight and that disassembly was carried out the following day.