This Christmas season the Office of Culture of the Formentera Council is overseeing coordination of the island's tenth annual selection of children's theatre. With performances scheduled December 18 and 28 and January 5, 7 and 8, the programme aims to give Formentera's young ones a diverse range of options for celebrating this year's winter holidays.

'Volen Volen'
One for the youngsters, the Mariantònia Oliver company's Volen Volen will kick off the 2017 programme Sunday December 18 at 5.30pm in the Sala de Cultura (Cinema). The actors use dance and circus to create a non-verbal language that hinges on movement and the manipulation of objects. Volen Volen is a choreography-based game that is both fun and familiar to children, fading afterwards like a nursery rhyme, an eruption of poetic images aimed at one thing: providing young children with a jolt of emotion.

Volen Volen... isn't a window for observing. It's a window through which kids are invited to jump, come inside, participate. With more than 20 years interpreting dance, Mariantònia Oliver is both Cia Mariantònia Oliver's director and choreographer and teacher at the superior conservatory of the Balearic Islands for music.

'Quina Pescada'
The programme continues with Quina Pescada!, a clown show for the young and old from Menorca's DOSNOUDOSMIL company. It is a family-friendly production in which careful attention to detail is infused into the set design and lighting. The show's craft-theatre feel is palpable and Quina Pescada! is both fun and participation-based. Two fun-loving clowns invite the whole family —ages 4 to 99— on a journey across the seas. The show takes place Wednesday December 28 at 5.30pm in Sala de Cultura (Cinema).

Percussion show
The afternoon of January 5, the eve of Three Kings Day, Formentera will welcome the Royal Cavalcade of the Three Wise Men of the East. As in years past, the Kings will be joined by their royal committee and decorated floats stocked with gifts for the children of the island. Taxeks Celrà will also be in tow, taking their percussion show to every town on the cavalcade's route.

In their more than six years of experience, Taxeks Celrà have honed the afro-latin influenced rhythms, songs, choreography, and performance style that have earned them numerous awards and accolades.

Storytelling
January 7 the Marià Villangómez library will host Tots iguals però diferents, a fabulous storytelling session brought to Formentera's youngsters by David and Monma.

'Cösmix'
Finishing out the theatrical selection, Sunday January 8 at 12 noon in Sala de Cultura (Cinema), is Teatre Mòbil's Cösmix. A pair of travellers, extravagant and indefatigable, take the stage with one goal: to leave audiences in stitches. Like two one-man-bands, they employ a vast array of techniques: improbable music, “recyclassic” theatrics, animal imitations and even a bit of time travel, live and in-person!

Teatre Mòbil has an experience that spans more than 30 years. Since the group's début, when their focus centred on family-friendly comedic productions, they learned to adapt their own particular parlance to the theatre. The result is a combination of humour and argumentative discourse which strives to never lose its connection with their audience.

Performance series
Formentera's selection of children's theatre is organised jointly by Sa Xerxa, a youth theatre group based in the Balearics, and the Formentera Council, with additional support from Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics. In its ten years of history, the series has also received indispensable support from Trasmapi and Fundació Baleària.

Sa Xerxa
Culture as a fundamental human right is a concept that has accompanied Sa Xerxa through their more than fifteen years of existence. It is also the main driver behind every one of the activities they promote. It all started with FIET, a festival of children's theatre in the Balearics. This year, FIET, in Vilafranca, was attended by nearly eighteen thousand. It has become one of the preeminent gatherings of its kind in Spain, for industry experts and families alike.

Thanks to help from sponsors, public institutions and the group's own members, FIET has taken part in joint efforts with Barruguet festival in Santa Eulària des Riu and Festival per a Piets i Fietes de Maó, in addition to Formentera's winter series. New events are also anticipated for Sa Xerxa's 2017 calendar, all in order to bring quality children's and youth theatre to audiences everywhere. That is the crux of the idea behind TAP (Teatre als Pobles, or “theatre in small towns”), a longstanding initiative to bring theatre to children and teenagers in the Balearics by decentralising the performance arts to benefit local cultural institutions.

Today brought the announcement of one of the main draws of the Office of Culture's Christmas 2017 programme, an evening of concerts in Sant Ferran. Performances, staged inside the festival tent at plaça de Sant Ferran, will kick into action at 10.00pm with homegrown songsmith Marí (formerly Pez Limón) opening the way for Ibiza-based heavyhitters Projecte Mut. Strombers will close out the bill with a show that promises to continue into the morning.

Local talent
Tasked with heading up the round of evening performances is hometown act Marí. In addition to receiving an education at the local school of music and the conservatory that serves the two Pitiüsa islands, Joan Marí trained as an actor in Juan Carlos Corazza school in Madrid. After playing in groups like Pez Limón in the capital and Endèmicks on Formentera, Marí cast his bid as a solo act in 2016. He is currently wrapping up production on his first album, Fénix, alongside Eivissa producer Joan Barbé (Projecte Mut, Ressonadors, Statuas d Sal...). Marí has had to cancel his performance due to a case of pharyngitis. Voice & Sense will perform in his place.

Projecte Mut
Just shy of midnight, Projecte Mut will take the stage to share with Formentera 10 Anys i Bons, a disc that celebrates the group's ten years of history through some of the their essential tracks, which include collaborations with La Pegatina, Els Catarres, Els Amics de les Arts, Gerard Quintana, Gossos, Maria del Mar Bonet, Blaumut, Quimi Portet, Cris Juanico, Cesk Freixas, Sanjosex and Miquel Gil. Now, as Projecte Mut prepares to perform before Formentera crowds, the group packs more punch than ever.

Strombers
Closing out the evening's rollicking festivities, the band led by Cardona Strombers will get folks dancing with their mix of ska, Latin rhythms, reggae, rock and country. With ten years of performing under their belts and still every ounce their original youthful, partygoing attitude, Strombers are well on their way to becoming one of the strongest musical groups in the region.

The Formentera Council's Office of Culture has announced that this Saturday December 10 as part of its Christmas activities programme, Formentera audiences will be able to see Gran Buffet (Ca Ses Brutes), the latest from Majorcan theatre group Diabéticas Aceleradas.

«Gran Buffet (Ca Ses Brutes)»
The piece centres on the story of middle-aged triplet sisters who run a bar in the intensely blue-collar Palma neighbourhood around plaça de ses Columnes. With an active mixing of castes, races, languages and colours, the quarter is, today, a symbol of our pluralistic and globalised society.

Our protagonists, Maria del Calvari, Maria Mateva and Maria Tot Sol suck us in to the sometimes madcap sometimes humdrum existence of triplet sisters. One has been in and out of relationships so often she's lost count, one is a widower and one has yet to ever meet a man. All of them born to a widower, they run a bar that has been in their family for years. To peek into their family-run establishment is to witness as a who's who of characters enters and exits. Some are endearing, some odd, some over-the-top, some obsessive-compulsive. In short, what you'd expect to see peeking into absolutely any house on any street in any town. The often hard but always comically construed reality mixes with the daydreams of the characters that stop in at Ca Ses Brutes.

The production will be staged at Saturday December 10 at 9.00pm in the municipal cinema. Tickets are 6 euros and can be purchased 30 minutes prior to start time.

Format
Presented in a style of theatre that is all-together innovative, Gran Buffet, with all the feel of a grittily real sitcom, showcases a cocktail of commonplace and humorous situations involving the show's more than fifteen characters, who waltz in and out of the bar in a style reminiscent of Siete vidas, Aida or Mossèn Capellà. The play is organised into five episodes, with title sequences and summaries of previous episodes, acted out before the live audience.

Diabéticas Aceleradas
The year 2016 marked Diabéticas Aceleradas' thirtieth in the performing arts. The group's style combines the expressive codes of popular theatre with forays into other formulas that might include everything from cabaret to soliciting audience interaction. The ever-present goal is to provide a reading of our own society that is based in humour and a touch of insanity.

The most important thing that a healthy society can do is know how to laugh at itself. Such was a founding pillar of Diabéticas Aceleradas. Ca Ses Brutes is the troupe's fifteenth production.

Investing in culture
The show receives support from Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics via Talent IB, a programme to promote the performing arts, as well as Fundació Baleària and Trasmapi.

Today the Formentera Council unveiled its events programme accompanying this year's Christmas holiday season. It is a fairly long list of activities for kids and teens, replete with family-friendly stage productions and other fun happenings to ensure this Christmas on Formentera is one you won't forget.

The starting shot will ring out on Thursday, December 1 with a children's show called La Deixalleria presented by Té a Tres theatre company. The production, which takes over Marià Villangómez library at 6.00pm, won't be the only holiday fun that Formentera kids have to look forward to. Complete listings of Christmas 2016-17 activities can be found on posters around the island. Plus, back for another year, December 17 to 21, is Diverespai, which features inflatable toys and a variety of activities for children.

Christmas market
Friday, December 2, local vendors will come out for the first day of Formentera's 2016 Christmas market, el Mercat de Nadal. The holiday market, which will once again occupy Sant Francesc's plaça de la Constitució, is conceived as a gathering place during the holiday season and a way to fill out the Christmas shopping availability. On the first day, at 6.30pm, students of Mestre Lluís Andreu will be on hand to sing traditional carols and christen what will remain the island's go-to live music venue until January 6.

Musical performances at the Mercat will take place from 8.30 to 11.00pm on December 2, 6, 9, 17, 22 and 30 and January 5.

Kids' activities
December 18 and 28 and January 7 and 8, Formentera will host a selection of children's theatre productions to fill Christmastime with fun for the island's youngest. The first show of the now ten-year-old initiative is Volen Volen. Produced by the theatre company Mariantònia Oliver, Volen Volen has aspects of both dance and circus and depicts a world underpinned by celebration, childhood, adventure, fantasy, imagination, friendship, understanding and emotional bonds.

The series continues December 28 with Menorca's DOSNOUDOSMIL presenting Quina Pescada, a production for young and old alike. Jordi Pérez and Anselm Serra take the stage as clowns, Suli and Monyaco, in a piece of independent theatre that is both fun and participatory.

On January 7, young hearts will skip a beat with Tots iguals però diferents, a work of fabulous storytelling by David and Monma that is slated for the Marià Villangómez library.

Rounding out the winter children's theatre calendar is Teatre Mòbil's production of Cösmix. Scheduled for the municipal cinema on Sunday December 8, Cösmix showcases two indefatigable —not to mention strangely extravagant— travellers who would appear to have been born to get laughs. Like two one-man-bands, the pair has an impressive arsenal: impossible music, recyclassic theatre, animal buffoonery, and —best of all— they take us to the future, live and in the flesh.

Casal de Joves
The winter holidays are a grand occasion for island youth. This year they have the opportunity to see Christmas-themed documentaries, create a related mural and and take part in hands-on classes on everything from cookie baking to interior design.

Tradition
Tradition will also be thick in the air this Christmas season. On December 8 the local school of music will host the 1st Cantada Pagesa, an evening of traditional song, and another regional choral favourite, Caramelles, will feature in local churches on Christmas Day and December 26.

An evening of concerts
A heavy-hitter on this year's holiday programme will happen December 16, when Projecte Mut performs in the festival tent on plaça de Sant Ferran. Local musicians Marí will open the show that evening and Strombers will close things down. The evening gets under way at 10.00pm.

Nativity and Father Christmas
December 17 at 5.30pm, the students of the Verge Miraculosa school will stage a Christmas nativity scene in the school's courtyard. Then, December 22, the children of the island have a visit from old Saint Nick to look forward to. Santa Claus will be at the Sant Ferran holiday tent from 5.30pm.

Evening entertainment
The evening of December 23, a local association dubbed the Three Kings will host activities, a barbecue and music at the festival tent erected for the holiday season. The entertainment programme will continue December 30 and 31 as well, Formentera's final send-off to 2016. December 30 at 10.00pm a local DJ will take to the turntables to get the crowd dancing. The last night of the year (technically one hour into January 1), six-person musical group The New Tremendos will ring in 2017 with a show marked by rollicking covers. Since 1993 they adhere to one basic rule: rock 'n' roll and partying, really wild partying.

The Three Wise Men pay Formentera kids a visit
As is tradition, Thursday January 5 at 4.30pm the Three Wise Men (“the Three Kings of the Orient” as they are more commonly known here) are expected at the harbour in la Savina. From there the entire cavalcade will set out on its tour of the island. At 5.30pm they're awaited at Sant Francesc's plaça de la Constitució, at 7.00pm in Sant Ferran, and at 8.00pm they will make the trek up to la Mola.

Group art show
From December 19 to January 7, a Christmas exhibition from a group of local artists will be on display, Monday through Saturday, 11.00am to 2.00pm and 5.00 to 7.00pm.

Award for best window display
As in years past, the chamber of commerce for Eivissa and Formentera is once again pairing with the Formentera Council to organise the 10th Annual Christmas Window-dressing Contest, push to promote festive Christmas decorations at local businesses.

Buy local
To drive Christmas shopping on the island, participating shops will be distributing raffle tickets for a chance to win 14 prizes, including a weekend for two on Eivissa (rental car and lodging included) from the Viatges es Freus travel agency; a €150 gift certificate at Majoral jewellers; a Christmas ham and bottle of wine from Carbonicas Tur; a sampling meal for two at Es Marès hotel and restaurant; an €80 voucher at Supermercat La Savina; a €50 voucher at Can Jeroni bakery; dinner for two at Restaurant Acapulco; a visit to Raquel's Hairspray salon in la Savina (a wash and cut or dye and styling); a piece from artist Sol Courregues; SHELAC nail treatment at BSC salon in la Savina; breakfast for four at Racó des Pa café; breakfast for two at the Antoni Blanc fitness centre café; a pack of four books; and four tickets for the Formentera cinema in 2017.