Tur and Marí are two of the most abundant surnames in Ibiza; they are so widespread that they are almost unavoidable in the countryside, like pine trees, rosemary, or (formerly) wall lizards. The fusion of the two surnames has served to title the second album by the duo L’arannà, composed of the Catalan Anna Sala and the Ibizan Lara Magrinyà. Turmarí was released this past October 30th and is a tribute to Ibiza, to its musical tradition, but also to the present and to all the “Ibizas” that coexist on the island. Synthesizers and Ibizan folk tradition blend together with surprising naturalness, in a pop experiment loaded with intention and sensitivity. I do not know how the album is received if you are not from Ibiza or Formentera, but, if it turns out that you are, Turmarí constitutes a very moving journey. L’arannà, after presenting the album on Saturday, November 7th at the Auditori de Barcelona, will be on Friday the 13th at Can Balaguer, in Palma, as part of the Open House festival. Don’t miss it: Turmarí is to the 21st century what Cançons d’Eivissa –the first album by UC– was to the 20th century.

What is happening in Ibiza with the far-right? Historically, Vox has recorded quite poor results on the island: both in the 2019 and 2023 general elections, Vox was 2.5% below the Balearic average. But last October 24th, the party made a show of force in Ibiza. Of the three rallies led by Santiago Abascal in the Islands between October 23rd and 24th (Maó, Palma, and Ibiza), the one in Ibiza was the largest according to various sources, with between 1,500 and 2,000 attendees; the Santa Llúcia bastion, the largest of the seven that defend the walls of Vila, was filled. That is a lot of people.

DANAs (isolated depressions at high levels) should be banned in Ibiza. I find that they don't suit us at all. They leave water, yes. Is water needed? Surely – champagne alone is no longer enough for me to fill the bathtub: it has become extremely expensive. However, if water is lacking, they should build more desalination plants. DANAs are completely inopportune: last year they already put the nightclub 'closings' at risk and this year they almost did it again. It was a close call. Couldn't they happen in February, when there's no one around? It is obvious that DANAs are contrary to progress, leisure, and any attempt at order. They catch me without an umbrella every October – one of these days I'll go to a 'Chinese store' and buy three or four. That's how things are. Adam – that's what the DANA in question was called – left 173.8 liters per square meter at Ibiza airport on Sunday the 18th. In a single day. Absolute record. A clear case of intrusion into the activity of the desalination plants. Why does no one do anything about it? Whose fault is it?

Mecagondéu is the third album by Sr. À, after Fil per randa (2019) and Ordint la trama (2016). Sr. À is the stage name of Adrià Rubio, born in Barcelona 31 years ago, an Ibizan by adoption since he was 14; he currently resides in Camarasa (La Noguera), because it “hurts him a lot what is being done to Ibiza”. Precisely, the first single of the album has been ‘E.I.V.I.S.S.A.’, an invective against the social and environmental degradation of the island. In Mecagondéu, Sr. À combines poignant lyrics and rap with a classic air, with production by Jove Cirurgià del Sample, who has introduced fragments of sardanes or redoblat singing. Sr. À is also the singer of the band Malaka, is a social integrator by profession, and a restorer of peasant chairs. If you are fed up with pop without ideological substance, Mecagondéu is just what you were expecting.

Silence at the disco. The clubs turned off their lights last weekend and, with that, the tourist season can be considered over in Ibiza. The big news of this year's closings was not any new attendance record, nor any memorable DJ set, not even David Guetta's sixth declaration as the best DJ in the world. No: the news was that the model and presenter Cristina Pedroche has become a DJ. Taking advantage of the fact that her husband, the superchef Dabiz Muñoz, has opened a restaurant in Ibiza, the superpresenter debuted as a DJ at the closing of the new StreetXO at Playa d'en Bossa. Because, yes: in Ibiza, restaurants also have closings. In Ibiza, soon even the garbage truck will have a closing when it finishes its shift. Pedroche has become a DJ and has been showered with hate. On social media, they have called her everything, and not very politely. And the presenter was surprised. I don't know why; Kiko Rivera also gets tons of hate in his meteoric career as a singer and disc jockey. Surely Paris Hilton and Pocholo Jiménez-Bordiú were also objects of mockery when they got behind the decks.

His name was Valentín Cabrera Zaracho, he was 48 years old and was from Paraguay. He worked in construction from Monday to Friday and as a security guard on weekends. He was "very happy" because he had been able to legalize his status in the country during the Spanish government's recent regularization; he planned to bring his son to live with him in Ibiza. Death, in the form of a fire, caught him in his makeshift dwelling on the Casa Lola estate, in the municipality of Sant Josep de sa Talaia, on Sunday, September 27, past 7 in the morning. With burns on 90% of his body, still conscious and suffering from extreme pain, he was evacuated by ambulance. He died at Can Misses the same day at 5 in the afternoon.

Aena is today the villain of the movie. Even worse: it is that secondary character in a gangster film, with a scar on his face and a defiant look, that no one wants to have nearby. Right now, no Ibizan politician in their right mind would want to take a photo with an Aena representative by their side. The truth is that the airport operator has earned it: a terminal sold to nightclubs, repeated polluting spills in Ses Salines, and boundless greed. That is how Aena has become the catalyst for popular indignation over a whole variety of problems, from housing prices to tourist saturation; at the 20-S demonstration in Ibiza –five thousand people according to the Government Delegation–, the most abundant protest sign was the cardboard silhouette of an airplane. Yes: a simple silhouette of an aircraft has become the symbol of the protest. That is enough, no slogan is needed: how do tourists arrive, if not by plane?

The goal is to give a strong wake-up call to the administrations, a big one, that cannot be ignored or disregarded. "We are expecting thousands of people," asserts the president of Joves d’Eivissa, Marga Torres. The demonstration will depart on Sunday at 6 PM from Vara de Rey and, with a route of a little over a kilometer, it will pass in front of the Council and end at Reina Sofia park, where a manifesto will be read. The diffusion on social media has been very intense in recent days, carried out in coordination with the platforms against the expansion of the airports in Barcelona and Mallorca. "It was when we learned that a call was going to be made against the expansion of El Prat that we decided it was the moment; afterwards, Mallorca joined in," explains Marga Torres. "I believe there is a favorable social context and that the people of the Pityusic Islands clearly reject the airport expansion," reasons the president.

“New York, New York!”, sang Frank Sinatra with his bass-baritone voice and exultant enthusiasm. With the same joy, or more, the news of the new direct flight between El Codolar and New York, specifically with Newark airport, about 24 kilometers from the city, has been received by the Ibizan tourism sector. “Great news for Ibiza”, said the Ibizan Council; a valuation that has been replicated by the Tourism Board, hoteliers, and travel agencies. It is certainly a remarkable fact that an airport named after a pebble beach connects directly with a city of 8.8 million inhabitants, one of the cultural capitals of the world; about 22 million people live in the New York metropolitan area, a figure that helps us calibrate the potential of the destination. The new route will begin in June 2027 with four weekly flights; tickets can already be purchased on the United Airlines website starting at 587 euros, prices that quickly climb towards 1,000 euros or more as the season progresses.

Raquel Guasch Ferrer has been the State's island director in Ibiza and Formentera since 2024. She is the first person from Formentera to hold the position. Her term will be marked by the management of the migration route from North Africa, which has the Pityusic Islands, and especially Formentera, as a preferred point of arrival, and which has caused recurrent political disputes between administrations. Since Pedro Sánchez revealed in Congress (last September 3rd) that there had been a “routine report” on “the Balearic Islands and the Peninsula” that warned of a high probability of migrant arrivals, the political storm has not ceased in the Islands. The State has been accused from Ibiza, Formentera and Palma of not informing about this hypothetical massive arrival of small boats. In this interview, we try to find out what is true, and what is false, in the controversy, and how the State handles the arrival of thousands of migrants each year to the Balearic Islands.

The Egyptian party in Sant Antoni de Portmany, including a 170-ton water pool, has turned out to be the news story of August in Ibiza. Rarely has a matter of such little depth—hydrological depth, that is, because it certainly has political depth—caused such a commotion. The Egyptian kitsch for 350 exclusive guests, authorized at the Can Coix quarry, is costing the Portmany City Council, held by the PP, unprecedented wear and tear, and has provided the PSOE with political ammunition they weren't even expecting.

They call themselves Joves d’Eivissa and they presented themselves to society last January; in their short history they have already managed to raise certain expectations; it had been a long time since, in Ibiza, a collective of young people with the intention of organizing themselves and influencing political and social life had been seen. They want to do so from an identity-based project and critical of the economic model that prevails in the Balearic Islands. We have spoken with two of the members of the association, Sílvia Ramón Torres (21 years old, social educator) and Marc Serra Ramis (22 years old, video game development student). It has been said that members of Generation Z demonstrate a deeper social commitment than previous generations, at least on issues such as diversity, inclusion, and equality. May this interview serve as proof.

Pau Arbona (Palma, 1986) is the director of the Parador d’Eivissa, the first to be built in the Balearic Islands and the 99th in the extensive network that makes up Paradors Nacionals. Surely, no parador has had such a tortuous history, from its construction decision in 2004 to its opening this March. During construction, the past of the dead and the projects of the living have clashed on more than one occasion: beneath the current building lies the long history of the city of Eivissa, since the first Phoenicians founded Ibosim about 2,600 years ago. Now, some of the archaeological remains found are on display and can be visited freely. Before receiving the commission to launch the Eivissa parador, Arbona has worked at the paradors of Benicarló, la Seu d’Urgell, and Plasència. Besides being a hotelier, he is a musician: a violinist and a specialist in traditional Balearic instruments. He is sure he will be able to fine-tune the Parador's operation until it is welcomed by both tourists and residents.

Like the Spanish national team, at the last minute. The thousands of people who chose the Variades area, in Sant Antoni de Portmany, this Wednesday to watch the eclipse, feared for twenty long minutes that the clouds would spoil the experience. Even some of the frustrated attendees began to whistle, following the logic of someone who would also applaud a sunset, as if the Sun could do anything about it. But just at the last second, the mixture of haze and clouds dissipated and at least the climax of the astronomical phenomenon could be contemplated: the 'diamond ring' effect just before the complete occultation; the halo of light when the Moon completely covers the Sun... A magical moment, even disturbing, if it weren't for the inevitable Ibizan soundtrack that accompanied it. And at full volume. The disco house that a DJ was playing at Café Mambo could be clearly heard from a good 400 meters away.

It turns out that the influencer Mercè Molinas arrived at Ibiza airport one day in July and found a DJ playing in the middle of the duty free. Since she is an influencer and does this, influencing, the girl made a video that has gone viral and has accumulated more than 210,000 views on her Instagram account alone (@mercemolinas). The publication is from last July 13th. This DJ thing has stirred up some dust. Ibiza airport has been sold to nightclubs in the form of advertising for days now – if you think I'm exaggerating, visit the arrivals or baggage claim area – but to put a DJ there on top of it!... I want to assume that the event will have caused some perplexity, discomfort if nothing else, among the politicians and Ibizan prominent figures who, just a couple of days before, were receiving Aena's explanations about the Codolar expansion; a project that, virtually, could almost double the airport's capacity.

Let's start with the conclusion: the protection of the Balearic lizard has failed; the snake invasion – first detected in Ibiza in 2003 – has been fatal for the most emblematic animal species of the Pitiusas Islands. In Ibiza, the lizard has disappeared from 90% of the territory; it has "two or three years left", according to Dr. Antònia Maria Cirer, a pioneer in the study of this reptile and a leading critic of the protection policies adopted by the Government. On the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List, the Balearic lizard currently appears as a species "in danger of extinction" and in rapid decline, with a "marginal" and "fragmented" population distribution. On the ground, almost any farmer in Ibiza will tell you that for years they haven't seen any of the lizards that, in the past, populated the traditional dry stone walls, a centuries-old symbiosis between humans and these animals.

They say that the devil, when he is old, knows more from experience than from advice. This is not the case in Ibiza; here the devil is equally evil, but quite young. The group of devils Es Mals Esperits was born 20 years ago within the Association 8 d'agost, created in the main Pitiusa island to promote popular culture, with a sense of identity and among the younger public. Last Saint John's Eve, in the municipality of Cubells – the same day and place where they had premiered in 2006 – the Ibizan devils celebrated their two decades. One of the godfathers of the creature, who still collaborates, is Pep Prats, a professor at the IES of Sant Agustí. “At that time we set up a summer school, a music festival was organized from which Projecte Mut and Quin delibat! emerged, we made some giants… And one of the things we thought would most engage young people was a group of devils. I recruited a few students from my institute and things just took off on their own,” recounts Pep Prats.

Llucia Serra Ferre (Eivissa, 1992) has just won the Ciutat de Manacor poetry prize with Et dibuix un portal in media something (i tu t’hi ajoques). Living in Mallorca since her adolescence, she is a philologist, a high school teacher in Son Servera, and runs a board game publishing company in Catalan, Dino Ludens. So that the reader can get an idea of her writing, in Et dibuix un portal..., she quotes and paraphrases a poem by Antonina Canyelles that says: “You can say my boat, but the sails are always the wind’s”. Llucia Serra’s version is as follows: “You can say my house / but the lands / are always the bank’s”. The poem is titled ‘Idealista’.

In Formentera, calm seas provoke unease. A strange feeling in a sun and beach destination. The same anticyclone that encourages the arrival of tourists and recreational boats fuels the arrival of dinghies. And more and more are arriving. The figures confirm it: in the last weekend of May alone, 15 boats with 236 people on board arrived at the southern Pitiusa island, 17 of whom were minors. Data from the Government Delegation in the Balearic Islands confirms the trend: by May 31, 63 dinghies with 1,056 people had arrived in Formentera, 49% more than in 2025. Another 156 people arrived in Ibiza. There is no one left who disputes the facts: the route between Algeria and the Balearic Islands – and especially Formentera – is a massive and consolidated migratory route. Less than a year ago, the Spanish government was not so clear about it.

The sofrit pagès suffers like never before. Yes: it's a very bad pun. The situation of Pitiüsan gastronomy is also not good. Sofrit and other Ibizan specialities are drowning amidst an avalanche of pizzas, tacos, sushi, chicken tikka masala and spring rolls. Not to mention the competition from Michelin-starred restaurants, establishments by famous chefs and fast food franchises. It's an unequal fight. A quick search on Google Maps reveals the difference in forces: in the capital of the main Pitiüsa island alone, the search engine offers 23 Japanese restaurants, 16 Chinese restaurants, 24 restaurants classified as Italian cuisine, 21 pizza-only places, and 23 Mediterranean cuisine. There isn't a specific tab for local cuisine, but we must assume it's included in the 'Mediterranean cuisine' category. Without even going online, any Ibizan knows they will have plenty of options if they want to eat sushi or pizza, and practically none if they fancy a sofrit pagès, the main meat dish of traditional Ibizan cuisine.But the sofrit is no longer alone. Last week, the Academy of Balearic Islands Cuisine was presented to the public in an event at the Consell d’Eivissa; this organization, for the first time, has four members from the Pitiüsa Islands, three from Ibiza and one from Formentera. A kind of Pitiüsan resistance against culinary globalization. There was talk of "defending our own" and the "danger of extinction" of local cuisine. It is still relatively easy to find the famous fish stew (bullit de peix) on the menus of Pitiüsan beach restaurants – another matter is whether the fish used is truly Pitiüsan – alongside international cuisine dishes. It is much more difficult to find less popular preparations, such as sofrit and borrida de ratjada. The same applies to desserts; beyond flaó on some menus and perhaps greixonera, it will be almost impossible for you to find any other.