The Majorcan creator Pau Pascual Llompart has been awarded the first international grant for artistic creation on the popular culture of the Balearic Islands, convened by the Estudi General Lul·lià. His project, Galejar, proposes a new look at the sonic legacy of traditional work songs and their integration into the present through contemporary musical creation.

At the beginning of 2011, the 26-year-old graphic designer from Palma, Jaume Vich, was in charge of coordinating the successful lipdub campaign ‘Mallorca m’agrada’ by Obra Cultural Balear (OCB). Back in 2008, the entity had launched the ‘Cafè per la Llengua’ campaign with well-known faces such as that of tennis player Rafel Nadal. According to the official statement, the new initiative aimed to “promote the moral rearmament of people who love Mallorca”. Many towns became involved in the creation of collective videos that claimed their own identity elements. In June, that boost of self-esteem would turn into frustration. The popular José Ramón Bauzá won the regional elections. His four-year term would be characterized by a clearly hostile attitude towards the Catalan language and culture.

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.

The Lul·lià General Study has opened a new call for an artistic creation scholarship endowed with 4,000 euros to promote projects linked to the popular culture of the Balearic Islands. The initiative is aimed at artists over 18 years of age, without restrictions on discipline, with the aim of fostering new creative perspectives based on the cultural heritage of the Islands.

There are three weeks left until the Manacor Spring Fairs and Festivals and this year the nerves are very noticeable in the 'castellera' group Al·lots de Llevant. One of its members, Joan Llodrà Gayà, 52, assures it: “We hope to be able to raise a good tower to celebrate our thirtieth anniversary. We are among the first 'colles' in the Balearic Islands. We were born in 1996, the same year as Castellers de Mallorca, from Palma. We have been rehearsing for months. Our highest construction has been a four of eight, meaning eight floors with four people on each floor. We have only been able to raise it three times in our history. We almost always do seven floors”.

HeAtlas of the demons of Mallorca, by Xesc Alemany and Bárbara Sansó (Susaeta); The demons of the little porthole, by Neus Coll and Roberto Campillo (Literary Island), and Ona the demonWritten by Núria Duran and also illustrated by Bárbara Sansó (Triangle Kids), these are just three of the more than fifteen children's and young adult books published in the last five years that deal, from different perspectives, with the festival of Sant Antoni in Mallorca or, more specifically, its central figure: the devil.