Palma's folk dance festival at risk

THE bi-annual World Folk Dance Festival may have to be cancelled because of a lack of funding.
The extremely popular global event has become a key date on the calendar of folk dancers from all over the world since it began in 1987, but the Balearic government and the Councilof Majorca have both apparently made it clear they have no money and Palma City Council has yet to make a decision.

Next April, Palma is due to host the XIV edition of the event which, as it has grown over the years, involves the whole island with dance troupes from across the world touring the villages during the competition which is held in Palma with stages erected across the city centre and tens of thousands of people turning out to enjoy the festival.

Over the past 22 years, dance troupes from 70 different countries have come to Majorca to participate in the festival which each year attracts over 1'500 dancers and performers.

One of the organisers, Tomeu Bosch, said yesterday that not only has the festival become one of the largest in Europe, it is also relatively cheap to organise but provides the island with massive global publicity. “If we don't have any clear news regarding funding next month, we're going to sadly have to cancel next year's event. We normally need a year to organsie the event, we're running out of time,” he added.