Llucmajor corners Banya Foc for Sant Antoni for plagiarizing the demon of Montuïri

LlucmajorThe Llucmajor Town Council has sidelined the Banya Foc demon from the official Sant Antoni festival events due to its plagiarism of the Banya Verda demon from Montuïri. Thus, the controversial figure, which debuted at the 2025 Sant Antoni festivities, will not appear this Saturday, the 10th, with the Town Hall demons as it did last year.

The Llucmajor Town Council's decision, given the proximity of the festival, stems from a report by the Advisory Council for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Council of Mallorca in April 2025, which unanimously approved that "the Banya Foc demon, as a trademark they wish to register, is a clear copy of the Banya Verda demon included in the aforementioned festival, declared Intangible Cultural Heritage and protected by Law 18/2019, of April 8, on the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage of the Balearic Islands." The controversy arose last year when, after the official presentation of a new Sant Antoni demon in Llucmajor, the striking similarities with Banya Verda, the well-known demon of Montuïri, were noted. In fact, in the town of Montuïri, it was considered a poorly executed copy of the Cossiers demon.

The Montuïri Town Council and the Cossiers Commission then appealed to the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council of Mallorca) and requested an assessment of the potential cultural offense caused by the creation of a demon in Llucmajor with the same characteristics as the Banya Verda (Green Bath) in Montuïri. Now, given the conclusive nature of the aforementioned report from the Historical Heritage department, the Llucmajor Town Council will forgo the Banya Foc (Banya Fire) figure this weekend at the bonfires in the Migjorn town.

Despite this decision, sources from the Llucmajor Town Hall indicate that if there are future legal changes regarding this figure, it is not ruled out that he could reappear with the Sant Antoni devil group in the town.

Let us recall that after the controversy that arose and was exposed by All PlansFinally, the demon of Llucmajor, Banya Foc, emerged onto the bonfires and into the blessed streets of Llucmajor. Afterwards, its owner opted to patent the figure of Banya Foc, a move that was quickly met with resistance from the Montuïri City Council, which, with the support of the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council of Mallorca), filed objections with the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office. At this time, as we can see on the patent office's website, the Banya Foc trademark is still pending. However, it indicates that the application has a "substantive suspension." And that is the key point. It indicates that the patent office has detected substantive defects, that is, fundamental problems, not mere formal errors.