Formentera gets ready to celebrate Sant Ferran Days, the first local holiday of the summer

SANT FERRAN 2015 mailEarlier today, the office of local holidays of the Formentera Council announced the activities programme of Festes de Sant Ferran. Organised by the Associació de Reis Mags with the support of the Council, 'Sant Ferran Days' will have many attractions but one uncontested main event: Saturday 30 May, an evening of live music at the town square.

First among the activities, at five p.m. on Thursday 28 May, the Sant Ferran library will host a workshop for kids all about the island's local hero: posidònia seaweed. Next day, a projection of the children's film “Oliver and Company” (“Oliver y su Pandilla”) will be held in the library at the same time.

Later that Friday, at eight p.m., an indispensable element of Sant Ferran's summertime evening ambiance—the artists' market—will kick off a new season of vending. Saturday's activities get under way with an afternoon exhibition (hosted jointly by the local sailing school, l'Escola de Vela) of entries from the Sant Ferran primary school drawing contest. Snacks will be provided and awards handed out between five and seven in the evening.

The traditional festivities marking the local holiday—a chanted mass and procession that cuts across the town's interior—will take place at seven p.m. Afterward, beginning at roughly eight, an hors d'oeuvres table stocked with local-favourite orelletes will accompany a street demonstration of the traditional ball pagès dance. Finally, from half past eight, local rockers La 22 will take to the stage and give crowds everything they need to dance. Chimichurri follow with a musical set that is sure to please before making way for DJs Alex Abril and Fedde R*, of Lifecode, who close out the evening programme.

Sunday will be a moment for a bit of calm, as the day's activities feature a pilgrimage to la Creu del Pare Palau and a senalló-basket picnic. Later that day the Sant Ferran pensioners' club (Club de jubilats) will celebrate six years of existence with a noontime mass and member lunch at Hotel La Mola.