Mallorca is not just the Ballermann. Most people know that by now. And yet when you think of the Spanish island, a taste like this often spreads. Images of Mickie Krause and Lucas Cordalis flash in front of the inner eye, of sunburnt bellies, pressurized refueling, beer helmets, bachelor parties – of this exuberant mixture of hedonism and trash that has a holiday motto like: ‘Fuck it! Malle is only once a year!’ so produces.
It is no wonder that, towards the mid-1990s, the general German public discovered Mallorca as a preferred destination for their (short) vacations: depending on the departure airport, the flight only takes a good two hours, the sea is turquoise, the beach is powdery and the temperatures remain moderate June and July at a pleasant 25-30 degrees Celsius. For Alman, who has experienced the cold, it is warm enough to bask in the sun, but not too hot to completely melt in it. Palma, the capital of the 3600 square kilometer island, is often referred to as little Barcelona because of its flair and architecture. Yes, on Mallorca there are schnapps and pop music promenades, but also hidden bays, exciting cliffs, quiet areas, good hiking trails, fresh fish and very good sangria – and recently a musical exclamation point that has nothing to do with clichés about sun hats has: the Mallorca Live Festival.
The Primavera of the Balearic Islands?
The Mallorca Live is still a young festival with high standards: up to 80,000 visitors* over three days and a line-up that in 2022 is counting on big names like Muse and Christina Aguilera. Since their debut in 2016, the organizers have decided to be named alongside festivals such as Glastonbury and Primavera. The next few years will have to show to what extent this succeeds. However, the first edition after the pandemic was quite a successful serve.
In Calvià, a small town that can be easily reached in 30-40 minutes by bus from the airport or Palma, from 24.-26. June cross-genre musicians put the microphones in their hands. Rock, pop, electro, punk, Latino and hip hop – the Mallorca Live Festival brings them all together on its four stages. Sebastian Vera, booker of the festival, created the musical profile of the event in the same way: “People no longer just listen to one genre or one artist, they listen to playlists in which everything changes all the time,” he explains.
The line-up is correspondingly broad: Christina Aguilera celebrates a small comeback on European soil on Saturday, she delivers a best of her hits, sings ‘Dirrrty’, ‘Genie In A Bottle’, ‘Fighter’ and seems genuinely touched when the audience singing along to ‘Beautiful’ loudly. The pop icon seems a bit rigid in her glittering full body suit, which is all the more striking in contrast to her very active dancers. At the same time, she needs it so that someone will fidget over the numerous breaks she allows herself in the almost hour-long set. For some, Aguilera’s singing was too shaky in between, for others it came across as too unnatural – but her performance was a party. Also because it fits perfectly into the current 2000s nostalgia. If she had been playing with her Motorola clamshell phone, she wouldn’t have noticed. The band that replaced Xtina was also retro: Franz Ferdinand are on the road with a “Greatest Hits” tour and delivered exactly that in an incredibly likeable and heartfelt way.
Muse decided, for example at the Tempelhof Sounds Festival on Saturday, to headline the last evening and convinced with a theatrical bombast show. In terms of aesthetics, they stayed true to their new single “The Will Of The People”. The accompanying video is set in a dystopian world, complete with masked anarchists setting fires and knocking down statues. Muse transfer all this to the festival stage and have everything at the start that a real rock show needs: columns of fire, fat guitar riffs (which obviously can only be played with your legs apart), the big poses – and pastel-colored streamers that were blasted at the delighted audience.
The highlights were the Spanish acts
The real heroes of the festival, however, were the local artists*, who impressed right away on Friday: newcomer Rigoberta Bandini, for example, who presented her light-footed electro-pop with a wonderfully bizarre stage show, artistic dance routines and a “free the nipple” party. But then C.Tangana tore it all down: Anyone who has seen his legendary Tiny Desk Set knows that the rapper mixes autotune, flamenco, folklore and hip-hop in a pointed and elegant manner. That’s exactly what he brought to the stage here, with a whole entourage of musicians on strings, wind instruments, guitars, microphones, guitars and glasses. C.Tangana’s elaborate stage design was modeled on a first-class nightclub in which people drank, sang and celebrated together. Suddenly you were part of your little film, which unfolded before the eyes of the audience – and inspired them. At the latest since his new album ‘El Madrileño’ (2021), C.Tangana has arrived in Spain’s music olympus and is one of the most successful artists in the country.
But even with the smaller acts, the booking scored above all with local musicians: Muro Maria played casual pop rock, Guitarricadelafuente showed his qualities as a singer/songwriter and Club Del Rio brought relaxed harmonies to the people. Accordingly, day one of the festival with C.Tangana and Rigoberta Bandini felt like the fullest day of the festival. So full that there were considerable waiting times when getting in, getting a beer or loading a bank card. The visitors vented their frustration on Instagram in the comment columns. The organizers reacted quickly with a statement and more staff for the second and third day of the festival – the problem was quickly solved.
In the conversation, Sebastian Vera emphasizes that he and the Mallorca Live Festival are all about an overall experience – not just about the music. The vibe should be right and in the best case scenario, the word “Mallorca” also makes you think of this festival, which makes it possible to enjoy first-class and varied music after a day on the beach, to indulge yourself in the well-curated food court with burgers, Spanish sausage sandwiches, try Venezuelan specialties or sweet cakes. It can be tourists who are already on the island anyway and get a day ticket, it can be people who just come for the festival and want to see various big acts and discover smaller musicians or just Locals who live in Mallorca.
In any case, the latter seem very happy about the event: “This is the only way for us to see such bands without having to go directly to the mainland,” says one visitor. The image change of the island, it has started. It is questionable whether the older drunkards from Ballermann or the younger ones in Magaluf will be fewer. But at least they are working very successfully here to ensure that this cliché is not the only distinctive facet of the beautiful island.
Oh, and speaking of the playlist – the official one for the festival can be found here:
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