10 years of Mobofest, the last dance to friendship
The festival closes the circle: it returns where it was born, in Consolació, and Antònia Font ends up imprinting its essence forever
PalmaCelebrating friendship is what the Mobofest has done for these 10 years, since 2017, when it burst to life in a first edition at Puig de Consolació, in Sant Joan. It returns this year, from July 23 to 25, to have the last dance and close a life cycle with a very round number: a decade.
“Regardless of the place where it is held and the bands that play there, the Mobo people have managed to establish a space that is not geographical or physical, but emotional, overflowing with enthusiasm and passion for what they do, and it is contagious. Whatever the place, I would go there headfirst and with my eyes closed, always,” says Julià Picornell of Ánimos Parrec, from Sant Joan, to whom Mobo precisely gave shelter in 2023 to debut. “Without Mobo we would not exist, and that is no exaggeration,” he affirms. “Without the push from Joan Roig, whom I hold in high regard and who had been telling us for some time to release a few of our own songs, I would never have started writing an album. We will always owe him for pushing us and for his blind trust. They were a hundred horsepower in self-esteem; the inertia still lasts today to have made three albums in three years, and wait,” adds Picornell.
Throughout this decade, Mobofest has woven an idyll with both artists and the public. A complicity that the organizers consider one of the festival's main legacies. "We feel gratitude for having created an extraordinary symbiosis," highlights Toni Jaume, from the organization: "We have gathered an audience that identifies with the festival. Many people tell us that they hardly come for the names on the poster, but rather to be part of an environment that welcomes them, respects them, and makes them feel valued".
Regarding the locations, the first four editions were in Consolació, the last of which, in 2020, had to be reconverted due to the pandemic into the concert series Els Vespres del Mobofest; the following year, in Lloret, it was supposed to be the resurgence edition, but it ended up really bogged down. And since 2023, the last three editions have been in Porreres, until this year, when it returns to where it was born.
However, everyone remembers the edition that was washed out, for the energy and complicity it generated. “In 2021, with the band Cariño, the storm broke: bubble water, races, muddy cars; we helped push so people could leave,” recalls Arnau Moratinos, one of the founding organizers who is no longer part of it, even though the festival is still “very important” in his life. “I remember the van getting stuck in a mud pit and them helping us,” says Joan Pons, from El Petit de Cal Eril, who is returning to Mobo this year to bid it farewell “as it deserves”.
“A survival energy was created,” adds Mariona Jaume, president of Mobo. “Everything exploded,” continues Moratinos, “it was a critical moment, because the equipment had gotten wet, everything was in danger, but we have photos of the festival’s central headquarters – which was Lloret’s school – where we were laughing and joking. That’s the magic of Mobo: the power of friendship. Nothing explains the festival’s success better. “Even though it’s such a demanding project in terms of dedication and labor, at the end of the day, we are friends. That’s been the key: wanting to be together,” she concludes.
For Joan Pons, participating in the festival marked a before and after. “It meant establishing connections with many people from Mallorca that were finally consolidated and who have accompanied us for many years. There are friends we met that day and others, like Da Souza, with whom we already had a relationship, but with whom our friendship became even stronger,” recalls the guissonenc. He also highlights the “affection, delicacy, and exquisite treatment” they received: “They let us stay for a week at the home of the grandparents of the organizers, in Sant Joan. There are very few festivals like this: they love music and what they do, and that doesn’t always happen.” Among the most vivid memories, there’s also an excursion: “to a hidden cove that Miquel Serra showed us.”
“It was always a pleasure to play there, I’ve always felt it very close, because I know them; it hasn’t grown and has managed to maintain itself, and the audience is very grateful, it’s like playing in your own neighborhood,” says Miquel Serra, the musician from Manacor, one of those who has played the most at Mobo. “It’s a shame it’s ending, but 10 years is commendable and it’s militancy when it’s not your livelihood,” he remarks.
Joan Miquel Oliver, who has performed solo in three editions, particularly cherishes his debut at Mobofest in 2019. “I was very surprised that those young people had been capable of putting together such a well-thought-out festival. It was a small festival, but it had an international headliner; the organizers and stage managers seemed like high school kids; admission was free and, even so, there was no overcrowding. It was an ideal festival in every sense, and the lineup was chosen with knowledge: they knew what the music was about. There were no technical errors, it was amazing,” recalls the musician from Antònia Font. And he adds a reflection that further strengthens the praise: “We’ve traveled everywhere and performed at festivals that have been a disaster. We know how difficult it is to put on a festival.”
The festival of Pla
By its own right, Mobo has been the festival of Pla de Mallorca, linked and rooted in the territory and its people; a sustainable project in years in which, in fact, it has ended up bursting the bubble of the oversaturation of economically predatory macro-festivals. “The foundational pilot that has been key and capital for the coherent and dignified evolution of Mobo is that it has been non-profit. Pla is a small place with limited resources and finding the balance has given it a particular soul,” opines Arnau Moratinos. “At the first edition, we ourselves worked as waiters,” he recalls.
And if friendship has always been the soul of Mobo, this spirit is faithful to what gave it birth: a private party one August at the home of Arnau and Vicenç Moratinos Bordoy’s parents, who had gone on a trip. Mobo is the combination of the first two letters of their surnames. “It’s a bit mythologized,” points out Arnau, “the name is the only loan that has had correlation.” “One day we were returning by train [with Pere Font, the third organizer of that party and who came up with the name] and we decided to turn the party into a festival.” They wanted to hold it again, like the party, at the siblings’ home, but “this Mobo 0.5, we could say, never existed, even though it was the inspiration to hold the festival in Consolació,” recalls Moratinos.
Carrying the name “is a bit contradictory,” he confesses. “At first it was a bit strange, it was a funny idea with a touch of pride, but the line separating it from the perception of egomania is thin and when things go wrong, you feel more responsible, even if you are just any organizer,” reflects Moratinos. “Over the years it has become like a second skin, so much so that no one thinks about the etymology anymore, it ends up merging within the same word,” he concludes.
End and beginning of living without you
The Mobo, like Antònia Font, has been – and is – life. For this reason, the presence of the group, which with the voice of Pau Debon reaches the Mallorcan soul, is also one of the great symbols of this tenth and final edition. Their concert (on July 25th) closes a circle that had remained pending during the festival's trajectory. "It was like a technical error that Antònia Font and we hadn't played there, because the ten years of the Mobo coincided with the ten years in which Antònia Font didn't exist," summarizes Joan Miquel Oliver. "When they proposed it to us, even though the group is not active now, we all said yes, because we have also been an audience of the Mobo," he explains. "It's very nice that Antònia Font plays in the last year of the Mobo. It was almost obligatory that we be there," he says.
“Antònia Font represents what we have done during these ten years, they are ours. We have mirrored ourselves in them a lot. And to make it perfect, returning to Consolació where it all began, we had to close it with one of the groups that most identifies with our values, the most important group in our history. They understood, like us, that they had to be there before it ended,” adds Toni Jaume, organizer: “It is the perfect end to the Mobo”.
Ending Mobo with the same enthusiasm as these ten years. It is knowing when to finish at the right time and not letting it die out. “Our lives have changed, we have other projects, we have jobs, we have other priorities and we want to finish with the current feeling, that the festival is healthy and our friendship, too. Waiting for it to go wrong, for there to be a money problem or for us to fall out would be a mistake. We believe it is the right decision for the health of the festival and our friendship,” states the president of Mobo, Mariona Jaume. “It’s good that it doesn’t end tired and weak, but quite the opposite, at its peak,” adds Toni Jaume.“The first organizers were 18 years old when they started and now we are almost 30; time has passed,” says Mariona Jaume. “A third of our lives we have been involved in this project. Ten years in which we have become people around a totally cross-cutting project that has formed and taught us a great deal as people and also professionally. We have poured our lives into it,” comments Toni Jaume.The idea that the celebration of Mobo’s decade would also be its end “gradually entered our minds,” admits the former. It came about when the organization was preparing last year’s edition. “There were comments and we joked about it, although little by little we made more, until we had half-accepted that there was a possibility of ending in 2026, coinciding with the ten years. In September, after the last edition, we had the evaluation meeting and I would say that the only thing discussed was whether it should be the last or not. It was a very long meeting and a difficult moment. There were people with energy to continue, but everyone agreed to leave if we weren’t all in,” explains the association’s president. “It seemed eternal in our lives and making the decision was also liberating. For the good of the group, it was necessary to end, because as friends we had to free ourselves from this annual pressure,” adds Toni Jaume.They insist that the fact of being a non-profit festival has been the soul that encapsulates the entire universe that Mobo has managed to create. “Being a festival for boys and girls, who are not professionally dedicated to it, is what makes us special. We are 14 people who look after Mobo all year round. We do it for the people and to keep musical culture alive and to give space to local bands that can share the bill with international artists. A loyal audience has been created,” reflects Mariona Jaume.“The last day will be a day with many emotions on the surface, it will be very difficult to be aware that it is over and of what we have done. Many things have been created from Mobo. We take nothing in return beyond the experiences lived. We are happy for what we have achieved and at the same time sad because something that identifies us as people will end. A whirlwind in our stomachs with one direction, which is the end. And we want it to happen, but we are also sad,” concludes Toni Jaume.