Music and literature hold spotlight as Formentera celebrates Sant Jordi

Foto Joan miquel oliverFormentera's department of culture, education and patrimony report on the start, this weekend, of some of the key events in this year's Diada de Sant Jordi programme. The day itself is Monday, April 23.

Saturday of Sant Jordi concerts: band roundup and Joan Miquel Oliver

Eivissa's parochial youth band, a group of senior musicians from València known as Unió Musical, and Formentera's own musical group will congregate in plaça de la Constitució this Saturday at 5.30pm.

Then at 8.00pm in jardí de ses Eres, former Antònia Font singer Joan Miquel Oliver will present his latest release, an album the singer-songwriter titled Atlantis.

At the musical roundup, the musicians from Eivissa will perform two crowd favourites: Malson abans de Nadal and Cartoon Symphony. The selection presents a smattering of sounds plucked from cartoons like "The Simpsons", "The Pink Panther" and "The Flintstones".

Unió Musical turn to hometown composers to serve as the through line of their performance. They will wrap up their portion of the concert by débuting an original composition by band leader Joaquin Estal.

Training their focus on pieces composed specially for bands, Formentera's music group will offer a diverse assortment of contemporary pop offerings like the Beatles.

The concert will close with a three-band performance of Aires Formenterencs' song “Visc a Formentera”.

When the bands exit the stage, it will be the turn of Majorcan singer and former Antònia Font guitarist/songwriter Joan Miquel Oliver to take over. Oliver will present his new album, Atlantis, which is a stylistic hold-over from his previous effort, Pegasus. In this more polished, revved-up album, Oliver broadens his scope to include everything from antifolk to electro, funk to rumba, pure pop to absolutely anything else audiences can imagine.

Diada de Sant Jordi

In Sant Francesc, book stands will be set up in plaça de la Constitució by numerous cultural groups on the island. Literature lovers can hawk their used favourites for books recently taken out of circulation by the local library. One new stand will focus on all the publications in which the Formentera Council has collaborated, like Artur Portes and Vicent Ferrer's recently re-released La Cuina de Formentera, the Martí Serra Rivera-penned La segona república a Formentera 1931-1936 (published by Editorial Mediterrània Eivissa) and the Formentera-themed 79th issue of Randa magazine.

One classic component of the Sant Jordi festivities is the award ceremonies, of the Antoni Tur “Gabrielet” bookmark contest and the Robert Lewis Baldon young writers competition. As the two contests turn 19, and in recognition of 2018's designation as European Year of Cultural Heritage, this year's young authors wrote about Formentera and its cultural heritage.

The awards ceremonies, which begin at 5.30pm in the cinema, will include entertainment by artists Ruth Delgado and Nacho Rivas and Improibiza.

Trasmapi and the Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics' Talent IB programme collaborate in celebrating Sant Jordi day.