Royal Parade will have 20 floats including one on Harry Potter

THE pages of the Three Kings yesterday visited the Mayor of Palma, Catalina Cirer, to herald the traditional procession which will take place tomorrow evening, and which this year will consist of 20 themed floats, 4 grand carriages filled with presents, masked groups and demons. Cirer received the pages accompanied by the councillor in charge of Event Organisation, Maria Jose Frau; the councillor for commerce, Sebastia Sanso; and the director general of IB3 television, Maria Umbert, because this year the procession will be transmitted live by the Balearic channel. The royal pages, who were in Palma to collect all the children's letters to the Kings, confirmed that the Kings, Gaspar, Melchor and Baltasar, were on their way laden with gifts. Their majesties will arrive at Palma's Moll Vell (opposite La Lonja) around 7pm tomorrow on board the ship Rafael Verdera, the oldest in the Spanish fleet, and will go through the Plaza de La Reina, stopping in Plaza Cort before continuing via San Miguel, Olmos, Las Ramblas, Jaime III to the Paseo Mallorca, where they will end their royal procession. The procession will be in three parts: in the first will be the great wizards of history, such as Merlin, Hermes or the more contemporary Harry Potter; in the second will be, as is traditional, the Three Kings and their entourage; while in the third will be characters from traditional fairy tales. This year, however, the Kings will not be mounted on camels but they will be carried in three carriages in the form of a star which was, of course, the sign which guided them to Bethlehem, said Cirer. The council has set up an exhibition of models of the carriages which will take part in the procession. This is in the patio of the City Hall, and opened yesterday. Frau explained that during this event, which has a budget of 162'000 euros, seven tonnes of sweets will be distributed to around 200'000 people who are expected to attend.