Today through Wednesday, April 12, Formentera Arte will lead a multimedia workshop in which participants will produce the opening video for Formentera Film, an international festival of shorts, documentaries and video art.

Filming is under way mornings this week at la Mola's primary school and pupils are taking an active role in the process. Some of the participants will make up part of the festival's youth jury as well, whose official selection will be screened the final day of the festival, which runs May 18-21, 2017.

Organisers saw the workshop as a chance to engage children in the making of an audiovisual production. More than a simple cartoon, stop-motion films encapsulate the entire journey that video production represents.

The details behind Regatta Ophiusa, a boating fixture that runs from April 13 to 15 and links Sitges and Formentera, were unveiled today at the main offices of the Formentera Council at the hands of local tourism councillor Alejandra Ferrer and organiser Josep Maria Ferrer.

Councillor Ferrer proudly announced the adhesion of the regatta's 250 navigators (and their 48 boats) to the Save Posidonia Project and their sponsorship, via QR code, of protected areas of posidonia seagrass. Participants will also be given a special presentation explaining the importance of posidonia conservation. In the words of the event's organiser, “as a group, boat enthusiasts use and enjoy the sea more than most, so it seems quite natural that they be engaged in the conservation side as well”.

He also asserts that the fourteen-year-old event, which receives funding from both the Balearic tourism agency and the Office of Tourism of the Formentera Council, has not strayed from its original vocation as an highly inclusive event. Participants, he said, vary from the most recent winner of the King's Cup to cruise ships whose families hanker for the chance to spend Easter at a boating event during Formentera's more relaxed —and perhaps more authentic— pre-summer season. With a wide array of groups and classifications, Josep Maria Ferrer called the regatta “an event with room for everybody”.

Low-season visitors
Councillor Ferrer indicated her hope that participants of the regatta —which will take place during Semana Santa, or Holy Week— would find plenty of restaurants and entertainment options already open for business. In that way, she said, those or others they'd spoken to would be more inclined to pay Formentera a visit before the start of the traditional season.

The event is 100% Made in Formentera, from its namesake (a Greek designation for the island) to classification titles like “Savina d'Espalmador,” “Savina d'es Cap” and “Savina la Mola” (the premier ranking is “Savina de Plata d'Ophiusa”). Even the trophies, concluded the organiser, are sculpted from Savina juniper wood.

Assistance for used textbook purchases, travel expenses and higher education are among the applications whose deadline will come due May 11, according to an announcement from the Formentera Council's Office of Education. Department head Susana Labrador called the money “a helping hand for local students” and “complementary to anything that may be provided from the other administrations in Palma and Madrid”. This year, as last, the total amount of assistance is €93,000.

Help for textbook purchases
The Council has pledged €45,000 in aid for second-hand textbooks. The money will go to primary and secondary schools on the island that add used textbooks to their libraries during the 2016-2017 school year.

Assistance packages will depend on the number of eligible pupils enrolled at schools with used textbook programmes in place. As a rule, €50 will be dispersed per primary student and €70 for their peers in secondary. Large families and single-parent families will each be eligible for 100% coverage.

Travel costs
Help is also available for students in higher education, training, accredited post-secondary and art programmes not offered locally. The Council has said it will put €38,000 into such assistance, dispersing it in €150 increments to students attending class on Eivissa or in distance learning programmes and €450 allotments for students whose studies take them outside the Pityuses.

Higher education assistance
Ten thousand euros (in portions of €1,250) have been earmarked for students who reside on Formentera and apply for higher ed programmes like university, art, vocational training, fine arts and design and sport. Such grants will be available for face-to-face programmes at public institutions. Students of private learning institutions may only apply in cases where a given field of study is not offered at public schools.

Conditions
Eligibility conditions can be found here: http://conselldeformentera.cat/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&id=351&Itemid=437&lang=ca. Applications must be submitted in person at the Citizen's Information Office (OAC) or online via the OVAC.

May 11 deadline
For more information, please contact the Office of Culture, Education and Patrimony of the Formentera Council. The deadline is May 11. Last year 103 students received travel expenses help, eight won grants for higher education and 73 got textbook assistance.

At noon today Carlos Bernús and Rosa Castells met in the courtyard of Centre Antoni Tur Gabrielet to give a presentation on the upcoming edition of Formentera 2.0. Bernús, head of the island's tourism advisory board, and Castells, organiser of the gathering on IT and digital culture, pitched Formentera 2.0 as a one of a kind chance for leaders in creativity, new technologies and digital communication to come together against an altogether unique backdrop.

Formentera 2.0's workshops and conferences are aimed at promoting exchanges of ideas and information and educating participants about a digital culture in full evolution. More broadly, organisers see it as an opportunity to connect, share and learning in the company of recognised experts in the field. Plus, the days are formidable occasions for networking, not least because the events put speakers and attendees in direct contact with one another. The philosophy behind Formentera 2.0 is to make learning fun; the motto: “Disconnect to connect”.

Twenty-three people have already registered and interested individuals will have through 25 April to sign up via the website, formentera20.com. For every participant registered ten square metres of posidonia seagrass will be set aside.

Premier speakers
This year's programme tackles digital transformation, social media, content, multimedia platforms, creativity, digital marketing, new technologies, TV, virtual reality and big data. Speakers include first-class names from the world of communication such as digital transformation leader Bernardo Crespo; Carlos Fernández, chief of Iberdrola's digital and social media departments; Ana Castro, manager at Coca-Cola; Franc Aleu, creative director; David Saura, head of content at FC Barcelona; Bruno Sellés, founder of Vasaka and Phil González, founder of Instagramers.