This Wednesday, June 3, and as part of the Palma Book Fair, in Plaça d’Espanya, Pere Estelrich i Massutí will present his collection of articles with a common denominator and a sufficiently eloquent title: Wagnerian Chronicles, published by Edicions Documenta Balear within the Menjavents collection. Estelrich needs no introduction. He is known on his own merits. A mathematician, he writes, disseminates and spreads wisdom everywhere: in newspapers, on the radio, wherever his knowledge is required. He writes as he speaks, clearly and entertainingly, as only someone who carries a wealth of many years and no little work, done with passion, which his words undoubtedly convey, can do.

He heard the first jotes and boleros in Valldemossa, where his father was from, a village that was beginning, in the mid-50s, to be touristy. She was born in 1948 and grew up in Palma, where her mother was from. At her home there was a pickup that was always on. The first records she listened to were Picolíssima Serenata, by Renato Carosone, and Una Casita en Canadá. She was particularly marked by French chanson and Italian singer-songwriters, but she also developed a taste for classical music: “She deeply adores Bach”. She is the second of three siblings: the eldest is Biel, a lawyer; the youngest, Rafel, a set designer. She is a composer, one of the most recognized voices in Mallorca: we are talking about Miquela Lladó. Pere Estelrich, a mathematician, musicologist, and collaborator of various media, introduces us to her.

The group of companies on which the Mallorca Live brand is based, which includes, in addition to the festival, the Mallorca Live Nights and Es Jardí series, has received more than three and a half million euros from public entities in the last five years. Of these, more than two-thirds since 2023. Among the different contributions, which include sponsorships and grants, one of the most notable is that of AETIB, the Balearic Islands Tourism Strategy Agency, which since 2023 has allocated around half a million public euros to the Mallorca Live festival within the framework of a call for sponsorships for major cultural and sporting events.

From his house in Bunyola, at the foot of the Serra d’Alfàbia, Miquel Canals Canyelles Moro, 93 years old, proudly displays a framed photo from his youth. It's no ordinary photo. It shows him with the trophy that in 1956, at the age of 23, accredited him as the best pine cutter in the entire State. At the end of November 2019, local researcher Biel Mateu Batle rescued his story and that of his companions from oblivion. This was during the Mountain Fair he organized in the town, which would later be called the Fira de Santa Catalina.

He was widely admired, also in the Balearic Islands, until the judicial affair that affected his family broke out and from which he has been excluded due to his delicate health. Before that, Jordi Pujol was, for decades, the benchmark of Catalonia par excellence, with certain ties to the Islands. We remember them as half a century has passed since the controversy generated, in May 1976, by his supposed 'disembarkment' as a shareholder in the Majorcan magazine Cort, in the midst of the political Transition.

If you were asked where Mallorca ends and Menorca begins, you probably wouldn't hesitate much. There is an evident physical separation, with a lot of water in between, a clear geographical border and a certain feeling that one thing is on one side and another on the other. The same would happen if the question were a little smaller and you were asked where Baix Camp ends and Baix Ebre begins. Perhaps the exact limit wouldn't be so present (those from Baix Camp and Baix Ebre certainly would, of course), but somehow we have assumed that territories can be divided: there is a point from which we leave a space behind and enter another.

Although it has been fifteen years since Alexandre Ballester passed away, he will always be present in the memory of those of us who enjoyed his talent, grace, and insight. That the Teatre Principal Palma decides to make him accessible to all those who did not have our good fortune is, without a doubt, not only a success but also a well-deserved tribute. The production, on the other hand, is a top-tier one, with a grandiose set design, with the drawback of mobility so it can go to other stages on the island, and a stellar cast, led by Miquel Àngel Torrens, along with Luca Bonadei, Mariona Hauf, Sofía Muñiz, Maria Rosselló Josep Orfila, and Patxi Arostegui. The play, Un baül groc per a Nofre Taylor, which Joan Lluís Bozzo once put on the Catalan alternative stages, a little before the creation of Dagoll Dagom, had been left at the bottom of the trunk of forgotten plays. Marga López has been in charge of this rescue, of this hyperrealistic portrait of the human condition, because that is what Ballester's play is, and nothing else. All the traits of the rich and powerful have not changed a bit, because they were already like that since time immemorial. This would be a careful, but simple, reading, because the subjects of the emperors/businessmen also play the same role as always, that of submission. Even more so, we could give all and each of the characters who appear the first and last names of someone known, so well-known that perhaps they are our own. Ballester's brush never left any corner unpainted.

The Mallorcan urban music group Fades inaugurated this Friday the 44th edition of the Palma Book Fair with a markedly vindictive opening speech in defense of the Catalan language, local culture, and the role of young creators. The trio, formed by Àngel Exojo, Ferran Pi, and Vicenç Calafell, took advantage of the inaugural event to demand more institutional support for culture made in Catalan and to denounce policies that, in their opinion, contribute to weakening its public presence.

The archaeological site of Son Forners in Montuïri continues to write golden pages in the history of Balearic prehistory. Just as half a century is completed since the start of the first systematic excavations (1975-2025), the settlement is once again shaking the research world with the unearthing of the fourth talayot.

About fifty people have participated in the creation of The Last Day of May: The Other Heroes, a short film linked to the events of May 31, 1550, and premiered this week in Pollença as part of the events leading up to the Patrona festival. The production, directed by Martí Pallicer, recovers a lesser-known part of that historical episode and focuses on characters who, despite having existed, are not part of the most popular narrative of the festival.

At Mallorca Live, in reality, the music is secondary. This sensation, which is increasingly repeated when talking about festivals, becomes a certainty in the island case if one analyzes the financial architecture that sustains the events linked to the Mallorca Live brand. Above all, a festival that in two weeks will celebrate its ninth edition, rebranded as Mallorca Live Occident. The entry of new sponsors and partners into the new promoter La Isla & Co is the latest step in a path full of countless commercial movements that are difficult to follow and, above all, to decipher: the tip of the iceberg of a network of dozens of companies that move millions of public euros to turn culture into a financial asset.

The world of trotting in Mallorca experienced, during the decade of the seventies, one of the periods of greatest expansion, intensity, and splendor in its recent history. Those years were marked by a notable growth in popular interest, by the consolidation of horse racing as a first-class social spectacle, and by the arrival of horses from abroad, which contributed to raising the competitive level of the tracks. The racecourses, and especially that of Manacor, became nerve centers of an activity that transcended the sporting sphere to also become a cultural, social, and identity expression. During that decade, and it is not an exaggeration to say so, the Manacor racecourse was one of the most active in Europe.

Perifèria Cultural will land for the first time in Mallorca in 2026 with a program focused on historical memory, root music, and local gastronomy. The cycle will stop in Porreres and Mancor de la Vall on May 29 and 30 with a proposal that claims peripheral culture and narratives linked to the wounds of Francoism.

The Eroski supermarkets in Mallorca will join this Friday, May 29, in the great simultaneous singing of La Balanguera promoted by the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB). The chain will play the anthem of Mallorca over the public address system at 12 p.m. and 8 p.m. in all establishments on the island, with the aim of contributing to the commemoration of the centenary of the musical premiere of Joan Alcover's poem with music by Amadeu Vives.

Mallorcans do not know our anthem. In our country, unless you are from Sóller or a slightly eccentric person, you do not know how to sing La Balanguera. And by knowing how to sing it, I mean the whole song, not just the chorus, and with the emotion it requires.

The music scene of the Balearic Islands has also raised its voice against the tourist overcrowding experienced in the Archipelago, and more and more groups and artists are dedicating songs to denounce the saturation and how residents have been relegated to being practically second-class citizens to the detriment of tourists. The latest to do so have been the Mallorcan artists Amulet and Xisk, who have released the track In Paradise, a new criticism of tourist overcrowding and the current model of the Balearic Islands. In the song, they ironically and poignantly review the problems that this saturation derives from and how the Archipelago has become a theme park where residents are the last. In fact, the first line of the song already makes this message clear: "I come from a land that no longer wants me. Theme park, next to Hong Kong".

Cinema will once again invade the beaches of Mallorca this summer with a new edition of Cinema Lliure a la Platja, which this year celebrates its fifth anniversary on the island with a program marked by auteur cinema, original version screenings, and support for emerging Balearic talent. The cycle will take place between June 25 and July 2 in Pollença, Manacor, Alcúdia, and Palma, with free open-air sessions that will begin at sunset, between 9:30 PM and 10 PM. This edition's program focuses on the margins and invites the public to reflect on human relationships, identity, and the sense of belonging through the feature films Molt lluny, La llum de l’Aisha, La chica zurda, and La misteriosa mirada del flamenco.

The program notes of Calidoscopi, the latest creation by Estudi Zero, state that “characters are moved by absurd, violent, or profoundly human situations”. True, but it would be even more so if the conjunction were copulative instead of disjunctive. If the situations are absurd and violent, it is clear that they are undeniably very human. The caricature does not distort reality but accentuates it, so that this bold, irrational, and bizarre point makes the metaphorical drawing of the human condition arrive with more effectiveness. That the performance is composed of different small stories brings the Sans seal, in such a way that it transports us to that journey that Karl Valentin was piloting in this very room. For the occasion, several authors are listed in the roster of Calidoscopi –Esteve Soler, Juan Mayorga and Joël Pommerat–, which makes the mood of the different sketches raise the heat of each one considerably. There is no white humor. All contain a high dose of venom, in the same proportion as causticity and sarcasm, and without fear of crossing red lines.The first story, that of the man run over by a bus, about which I will say no more because it would be a spoiler, sets the tone of the performance. Black humor in its purest form. Human cruelty or lack of humanity, which in this case is the same, shines with all its splendor. That of the couple who confess to their twenty-year-old son that he was not a desired child, exponentially increases the portion of inhumanity. That of the seller of anything you can imagine is a mirror directed towards the stalls. And so on. All in all, rounded off with a musical number performed by Dominic Hull, a My way in the purest crooner style, accompanied by the rest of the cast and dressed as Fortunio Bonanova and the Glamouramas were in their glorious American years. Naturally, in such a diverse ensemble it is not easy to find the ideal point of homogeneity, but, even so, the performance treasures enough uniformity, both in the different stories and in the interpretation of the seven protagonists, who in such a marathon performance become an immense crowd of characters, always dressed very differently. Only a small caveat, the wigs are not very necessary. With the different changes of register, which are there, it is enough.

The group Ginestà has consolidated itself as one of the most outstanding formations in the Catalan music scene, with a project that has grown from small venues to the major festivals of the Catalan Countries. With a proposal that claims making music in Catalan as an essential part of their artistic identity and focused on everyday emotions, the group has been expanding its connection with the audience. Now they arrive in Mallorca, where they will perform at TribuFest this weekend.

The Magaluf Expanded Literature Festival (FLEM) has announced the first literary residency in the town, a program offering two ten-day creation grants for writers working in Catalan and English. The residences will take place at the Innside Calvià Beach hotel and include accommodation, travel, an economic endowment of 500 euros, and participation in the next edition of the festival. The deadline for submitting applications will be open until June 15, and applications must be sent through the form available on the event's website.the event's website.