There will be no Flexas festival in the Marc park: they denounce lack of help from Cort

PalmaThe traditional Flexas festival will not be held this year in Parc de la Mar. After being declared a festival of municipal interest last year, the Palma City Council has withdrawn its support for the organization of the event. The decision comes amid controversy over the LGTBIQ+ Pride celebration and represents a new blow to two of the main spaces linked to the visibility and celebration of queer culture.

The managers of the well-known Palma venue announced this Thursday that they are renouncing the organization of the 22nd anniversary celebration at the public venue after weeks of talks with Palma City Council to try to find a way to make its continuation possible.

The organizers consider that the growth of the festival, which last year brought together around 15,000 people, has reached a point where management requires a much more solid structure. Aspects such as security, infrastructure, technical production, permits, insurance, and prevention plans involve more and more economic and human resources.

El Flexas states that for years he has sustained the project thanks to personal effort, the collaboration of contacts, and a large amount of invisible work, but warns that a massive event of these dimensions cannot continue to fall exclusively on two people. According to those responsible for the venue, the continuation of the party in Parc de la Mar would require greater involvement from public administrations to guarantee "sustainable and safe conditions" for both the organization and the attending public.

According to the organizers, Palma has different lines of public support for cultural activities, events, and city projects. Regarding this, they consider that a project that has been "activating public spaces, creating cultural fabric, and bringing together thousands of people for more than 20 years also deserves to be heard, cared for, and accompanied".

Furthermore, they explain that out of respect for the city of Palma and its people, for the City Council team, and for themselves, they believe that this year "the most responsible thing is to pause rather than assume unviable and inconsistent conditions".

"Incompetence and LGTBIfobia"

On the other hand, the Ben Amics collective has accused the Palma City Council of turning the Pride festival into a show for tourists. This is how the spokesperson for the entity, Jan Gómez, stated at the Palma City Council plenary session this Thursday, during an intervention in which he denied that Ben Amics had rejected the organization of the festival "for economic interests or electoralism." According to him, the cancellation occurred "with great sadness" and due to the agreed incompetence and LGTBiphobia" of Mayor Martínez.

Gómez has reacted this way to Wednesday's announcement by the Palma City Council that a festival is being prepared for next June 27.

The spokesperson for Ben Amics has rejected what he has considered the "dismantling of LGTBI policies" and the "precariousness" in the organization of the festival, in relation to the obstacles that, according to him, have been encountered since they made the first request for public space occupation.