News

Tremendos headline New Year's concert in Sant Ferran

Tuesday, 26 December 2017 12:46

Tremendos grup de versions autor de la foto santi iglesias redux The Formentera Council's Office of Culture and Festivities announces that New Year's Eve celebrations on the island will be headed up by the band Tremendos. From 1.00am, Catalunya's turbocharged contribution to the country's body of cover bands will provide the tunes as the crowd in the Sant Ferran festival tent rings in 2018.

Tremendos are six musicians whose enduring run in the music game today provides them with a repertoire of anthems from the eighties, nineties and noughts that resonate with a breadth of generations. Their music includes everything from well-known classics in Castilian (Los Secretos, La Guardia, Tequila, Ramoncín, Seguridad Social, El Último de la Fila, Fito y los Fitipaldis, Morat [Como te atreves], Celtas Cortos, Efecto Pasillo...) to the beloved Catalan favourites (Sopa de Cabra, Txarango, Els Catarres, La Pegatina...) with international hits like AC/DC's 'Highway to Hell' and Guns'N'Roses' cover of 'Knocking on Heaven's door' thrown in the mix too.

As she extended her own holiday greetings to the people of Formentera, culture secretary Susana Labrador told islanders a little about what to expect from the New Year's Eve performance. “Tremendos are in a league of their own in music”, she said, assuring that the group's brand of “freshness and variety” are just what Formentera's Christmas holidays need. Tremendos were awarded Musicat's 100% live music quality seal and the 2011 Arc award for best cover band by the professional association of representatives, promoters and mangers of Catalunya.

Formentera hosts third sports photo contest

Friday, 22 December 2017 10:27

Tercer premi esports 2017 The Formentera Council's Office of Sport has honoured winners of the island's third Concurs de Fotografia Esportiva, or Sports Photography Contest. They are Oskar Matxin, whose “Som de 2a B” earned the photographer a €300 prize; Alessandro Ramazzotti, who won €200 for “Furia” and Paula Torrano, awarded €100 in recognition of “Rodando en Es Pujols”. The winning prints will be displayed at Antoni Blanc fitness centre.

Congratulating the winners, sport secretary Jordi Vidal pointed out that judges had “saluted the moment, feeling and sportsmanlike values embodied in the photo that won first prize, the landscape captured in the second, and the technical quality of the third”.

Hence, as today begins the sport photo contest's fourth edition, interested participants are invited to submit pictures to fotografiaesportiva@conselldeformentera.cat through next November. Prints sent to the Citizen's Information Office, or OAC, by certified mail will also be accepted.

Photos must be related to sport, any facet of a sport conducted here locally, or Formentera athletes competing or training elsewhere. Once again, cash prizes will be set at €300, €200 and €100, respectively. New this year, one €100 prize will also be awarded for “best sports selfie”.

Conditions
Each photographer can submit no more than three prints, which must be previously unpublished and may not have been entered in other contests. The image can be in colour or black and white. Physical submissions must be unframed, paper prints, 20cm wide and 40cm long, in square, digital, classic or panorama format. For online submissions, JPG files which should be no bigger than 8Mb, photographers can modify tone, saturation, brightness, contrast, levels and curves only.

Submitting photos
Paper submissions will be accepted by the Oficina d'Atenció Ciudadana (OAC), carrer de Ramon Llull, nº6 until November 25, 2018. A blank envelope with the photographer's full name, address, e-mail address and telephone number should also be included.

Photos submitted by certified mail delivered to the Formentera Council at plaça de la Constitució, 1, Sant Francesc Xavier, Formentera, must include an avatar with which to identify the photographer.

Online
Online submissions should be sent to fotografiaesportiva@conselldeformentera.cat and include the following: Full name. E-mail address. Telephone number. Town of residence.

Each photo must include a title and a note about where and when it was taken. A panel of individuals with recognised experience in the visual arts will select the winning photos, which will be announced in early December.

Next Thursday, Formentera gets ready for theatre show for the whole family

Thursday, 21 December 2017 13:21

Foto-cleta The Formentera Council's Office of Culture and Festivities reports that next week, on Thursday December 28 at 5.30pm, the island's cinema will lend its stage to el Viatge a la Font de Xocolata, a family-friendly production included in the eleventh children's theatre mostra, or festival. Also featured as a part of the homegrown performing arts initiative “l'Illa a escena”, the performance runs fifty minutes and tickets (€3) are available at the box office the day of the event. TALENT IB, a programme of the regional government's Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics, claims el Viatge a la Font de Xocolata on its circuit as well.

Story
El Viatge a la Font de Xocolata (literally, Voyage to the Chocolate Source) blends acting, puppets, masks and other assorted visual elements that make Cleta's story all the more resonant. Cleta, perennially perched atop her bicycle, is the keeper of one thousand and one tales. She learns of petroleum, its origins, its uses, its misuses, etc. On her travels at sea from land to land, the heroine observes that profusions of the mineral aren't always met with celebration.

El Viatge's audience doesn't begin and end with children. Their accompanying adults will enjoy it as well. The story and the lesson it embodies will captivate grown-ups and kids alike. And all that, without falling into the trap of too much drama. On the contrary, el Viatge's tale is one of positivity, optimism and emotion.

The company
Ferro Productions, with, at the helm, renowned actor and cultural manager Toni Gomila, is a stage production and cultural management company founded in 1998 and professionalised in 2003. Over the years they've focussed on finding and cultivating entertainment and theatre troupes for both kids and adults and have worked tirelessly in the performing arts in the Balearic Islands.

Local security committee convenes in special session over burglaries and fires

Thursday, 21 December 2017 16:30

Foto junta local de seguretat This morning at 11.00pm, the Formentera Council called a meeting of the Junta Local de Seguretat, or Local Security Junta, in the administration's hall of ceremonies. Council president Jaume Ferrer summoned local Govern delegates for the one-off gathering in a bid to address recent burglaries and fires on the island.

The committee is co-chaired by Ferrer and Maria Salom, the regional government's envoy on the island. Another Govern representative, Rogelio Araujo, sat in for Salom, who was unable to attend.

Afterwards, the president framed the gathering as an opportunity to check in on the action of local law enforcement like Guardia Civil in response to the robberies and fires. Specialised divisions have also been enlisted in tackling the issue, he said. The meeting also served as a forum to explore improving coordination between agencies like the Guardia Civil and Formentera Local Police.

“Based on what we have seen, the work is getting done”, Ferrer said, though admitting “results in these cases are slow to materialise”. “We want to see fast changes, but our message to the people of Formentera is one of tranquility: trust that our national forces of security are here for our protection”.

In plenary, assembly votes to create Formentera Council 'jobs catalogue'

Wednesday, 20 December 2017 16:07

Foto ple desembre 2017 The Formentera Council convened today its December plenary session, where support came for a proposed ordinance on terraces and other arrangements that occupy public spaces. The administration's land, tourism and trade secretary Alejandra Ferrer says the measure will include changes such as new articles to remove procedural obstacles and facilitate patrols.

Aiming to strike a balance between the use restaurants, hotels and other businesses make of public spaces in pursuing their professional activity, and the broader public interest, the rule change seeks to ensure a minimum level of disturbance whenever businesses occupy the public thoroughfare, considering that “public interests should always trump private ones” as its gold standard. Of particular note is a provision holding that any establishment wishing to set up a terrace must also open at least May 15 to October 15

One particular provision, that establishments with terraces must also open at least May 15 to October 15, is part of a bid to encourage shopping in the off-season and offer support to businesses that are open longer. The measure was backed by senior councillors and members of the PSOE and saw the abstention of the PP and Compromís.

The green light was given to a proposed jobs catalogue (or Catàleg de Llocs de Treball) for the Formentera Council. Vanessa Parellada, the administration's head of human resources, pledged ongoing work and talks with public servants' legal reps would lead to a new jobs estimate equipped with administrative guidelines on employment. The measure got backing from all the parties except the PP, whose members abstained.

Rule on vehicle ingress to Formentera
Plenary members were united in their support of an emergency measure to regulate the vehicles that enter Formentera. As part of the measure, the Council will urge the regional government in Palma to urgently create a legal mechanism to limit the cars arriving on the island.

Speaking after the plenary session, CiF president Jaume Ferrer said that, as with the proposed relocation of Formentera passengers' Eivissa ferry landing, the administration would back whatever course of action is decided by the island's coalition of community leaders, the Consell d'Entitats.

Mobility secretary Rafael González reminded his associates that the journey towards regulating vehicle entry to the island began two years ago, and called to mind a meeting of the advisory body back in September 2014, when it voted to enlist the Formentera Council in brokering a fix. As a result, a plenary agreement was reached and the issue was included among 14 others proposed at the start of the legislative session. González assured that since then the administration has been working with the regional government to author a proposal.