Festival – Festival de Pollença

Presentation

The artistic proposals of the Pollença Festival are inspired by their essence and deeper characteristics, respecting their idiosyncrasies, but without ceasing to be international proposals designed to be available to everyone. Designed to transcend beyond the municipality, giving an international dimension that exceeds the limits of the Balearic Islands and the Spanish territory, providing all people, residents and visitors with a complementary cultural offer of the highest level.

There are more than nine hundred first-rate artists who are part of the history of the Pollença Festival, of very diverse nationalities and styles. Throughout its long history, the festival has consolidated its international prestige, reaffirming itself as one of the unavoidable events of the summer months, both for the residents and those who visit the island of Mallorca and wish to enjoy a musical program of excellent quality in each of its proposals.

We want to highlight the positioning of the Pollença Festival, as a window through which the light of all the great world-class artists enters, also serving as a “cultural beacon” that emits, through the musical compositions performed by the most prestigious groups and soloists, a light that is projected throughout Europe. A light that, following the trail of music, invites you to sign up through the festival window to enjoy the beauty of the landscapes of the municipality and Mallorca from a diverse perspective.

In short, we are working to make the Festival de Pollença, as the wise man said, a ‘fire that radiates from a culture capable of reaffirming our identity’.

The Festival team

The Festival, attached to the Department of Culture of the City Council, is managed by the technical services of the City Council of Pollença. From 2020, the Festival has Mr. Pere Bonet Bonet in the tasks of programming and artistic direction and design and as Coordinator of the Festival’s Advisory Committee, from 2024.

Since 2024, the Advisory Commission was recovered with the aim of sharing, debating and evaluating the annual programs and editions. The committee is made up of four experts with musical training and knowledge and backgrounds that support his appointment, including Mònica Marí, Mrs Isabel Fèlix, Mr Joan Company and Mr Joan Campomar.

The Cloister

Between the 16th and 17th centuries the Dominicans erected this emblematic building, in the cloister of which one of the main classical music meetings in the world is held every year.

This building was erected by the Dominican friars (1) between 1558 and 1616 with the aim of consolidating their presence in Pollença, since they initially settled in the Oratori del Roser Vell. The Dominicans occupied the church and the convent until 1833, when the complex was disentailed (2), and a few years later the State ceded it to the Ajuntament de Pollença. Since then it has been put to numerous uses, from hospice-residence to Civil Guard barracks, school, library and museum.

The church of the convent has a basilica floor plan (3) and ten side chapels, each adorned with an altarpiece from the period of its construction. The most striking example is the one at the head of the church, which was made between 1651 and 1662 by Majorcan sculptor Joan Antoni Oms and is dedicated to the Mare de Déu del Roser, patron saint of the Dominicans. The painting dates back to the fifteenth century and comes from the Oratori del Roser Vell.

Next to the church is the pièce de résistance of this building: a Baroque-style (4) cloister which was completed in 1616. Well known for the beauty of its four arched corridors, it has also been the venue for the Pollença Classical Music Festival since 1962. The best orchestras, choirs and opera singers of the world participate in this annual event, which takes place during the summer, enjoying not only the beautiful scenery but also the excellent acoustics provided by this cloister.

(1) Dominican Friars: The Order of Preachers, also known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic religious order founded by Spanish priest Domingo de Guzmán in 1216. Its members, the Dominican Friars, advocate a life of preaching peace to the people, having taken vows of poverty, austerity, chastity and obedience. Famed Dominicans from throughout history include Tomás de Aquino, San Vicente Ferrer and Bartolomé de las Casas.

(2) State Expropriation: Throughout the nineteenth century, Spanish liberal governments carried out a process of expropriating, nationalising and privatising many of the properties that the Catholic Church had amassed across the country. The aim of this was to boost public coffers, which were suffering heavily due to wars and the loss of colonies.

(3) Basilica floor plan: A type of architectural floor plan that dates back to Roman public buildings. It consists of a main nave separated from other lower naves by rows of columns, allowing churchgoers to focus on the chevet of the church, which is usually an apse where the high altar is found.

(4) Baroque-style: A term identified with a cultural movement and artistic style dating approximately from the seventeenth to mid-eighteenth century, characterised by excessive ornamentation. In fact, the concept was coined by its critics using the French word ‘baroque’, one translation of which is ‘extravagant’, referring to what they considered was an excess on the part of certain artists.