The Christmas lights switch-on show in Palma this year 2023 will be held on 23rd November, the day before ‘Black Friday’. More than 400 kilometres of garlands and 3,026 light installations will adorn the trees and streets of the municipality until after Sant Sebastià. The Ajuntament has announced traffic cuts and diversion of bus lines from 5.30 p.m. tomorrow.
Palma will turn on the Christmas lights one day before Black Friday, that is, on Thursday the 23rd of November. The budget, both for the switch-on show and for the installation and inspection of the Christmas lights throughout the municipality, amounts to 1.23 million euros. This year the budget for putting up the lights has been increased by more than 100,000 euros compared to the previous year due to an increase in the number of installations and to replace obsolete material.
Program of the lighting on
The main event will take place in the Plaça de la Reina. It will include a series of performances and shows in different locations around Palma to invite the public to attend the event, which this year has magic and light as its main themes.
Thus, three parades have been scheduled with more than 70 artists, including giants, acrobats, jugglers, horses and dragons of light, among others. They will leave the Parc de Sa Feixina at 6:30 p.m., Plaça de Cort at 7:00 p.m. and Plaça Joan Carles I at 7:15 p.m. They will meet up again in Plaça de la Reina, where a show will begin at 7 p.m.
This year the symbolic act of switching on the lights will be carried out by the Monti-sion Solidaria Foundation. This is a social entity that offers comprehensive help to people, from psychological support, legal advice or administrative procedures to the delivery of food, toys or clothes to families at risk of social exclusion.
💡 Here you can consult the programme for the lighting of the lights for 2023.
Traffic cuts and diversion of bus lines
The Local Police will proceed this Thursday to cut off several streets in the centre of Palma from 5.30 pm onwards.
They will be the following: Joan Carles I in the direction of Born, Jaume III with Protectora, plaça de la Reina, Antoni Maura with Aduanes. Also carrer Victoria with Palau Reial, Conqueridor with Tous i Maroto, Conqueridor with Pelaires and Soledat and, finally, Unió with Riera.
As for the diversion of buses, the EMT has scheduled the following lines to be diverted in both directions from 5.30 p.m. until midnight:
- L3 (Pont d’Inca-Joan Carles I),
- L4 (Ses Illetes-Plaça Columnes),
- L7 (Son Gotleu-Son Serra/Sa Vileta/Son Vida),
- L20 (Porto Pi-Son Espases),
- L25 (S’Arenal-Plaça de la Reina/Catedral)
- and L35 (Aquàrium-Plaça de la Reina/Cathedral).
- Likewise, L25 will start and end at Passeig Mallorca. The L35 will start and end its route at Eusebi Estada. Line CC will make its last departure from Balanguera at 17:05.
Users can check the direction of the diversions on the notices posted on the website, APP and social networks, as well as at the stops affected.
News
For its part, the Infrastructure Department has spent several weeks installing more than 400 kilometres of garlands and 3,026 luminous installations in the trees and streets of the municipality. This includes, among others, 1,999 hanging decorations, 1,044 banners on lampposts, five marquees and two walkable arches that will be located in the Parc de Sa Feixina. Likewise, two giant 10-metre-high trees have been installed in calle Jaume III and Avenida Antoni Maura, a 20-metre-high tree in the Parc de Ses Estacions, a giant luminous ball in Paseo Sagrera and a giant star at the Santa Catalina gate.
The device in Palma, which will remain in place until after the Sant Sebastià festivities 2024, this year incorporates the lighting of new streets and locations in the municipality, including a specific decoration on the columns in Plaza García Orell, the installation of banners on a stretch of Molí des Comte street and the renovation of the decorations on the Camí de Passatemps in Son Sardina, as the useful life of the lights that were previously in place has come to an end. Lights will also be installed for the first time in Plaza Fra Joan Alzina, Ausias March, Bartomeu Pou and Mare de Déu de Montserrat following requests received from residents’ associations.
Christmas in Mallorca: beyond the switching on in Palma
That same day, the Fira de Nadal i Reis 2023 will take place as a foretaste of Christmas in Mallorca. Nearly two hundred stalls of crafts and typical products of the islands await you between November 23 and January 7. This one with a novelty in its location: the Fira moves from Plaza España and Porta Pintada to Parc de ses Estacions. The reason: the improvement works being carried out in this area continue.
You can’t miss the Route of the Nativity Scenes of Palma either. It offers you, among others, the visit to the iconic Bethlehem of Cort, located in the City Hall of Palma from November 21 to January 6. It is a popular Nativity scene, composed of 250 clay figures, Mallorcan type. Handmade and hand painted by Margalida Nicolau for this Bethlehem.
In addition to the birth, the cave of the Annunciation of the kings and the usual figures of a Bethlehem, we find everyday scenes of the streets of the city and the countryside, as well as the traditional figures of the hidden friar and the ‘drac de na Coca’.
Citizens who wish may visit it in the lobby of Cort from 9 to 20.30 h from Monday to Friday and from 10 to 20 h in the case of Saturday, Sunday or holidays.
💡 Here you can consult the nativity scene route provided by the Town Council.
Another Christmas classic is the Cant de la Sibil·la, a medieval chant that can be heard at Midnight Mass in the Cathedral on the night of 24 December.
New Year’s Eve and Epiphany in Mallorca
To celebrate the end of the year in Mallorca, you have an unavoidable appointment with the clock d’en Figuera, located on the facade of the Town Hall of Palma. After more than 160 years telling the time, it is in charge of offering the spectacle of its chimes on December 31st. Its great convening power attracts ‘llonguets’ and citizens from all over Mallorca, as well as visitors, who come to the Plaça de Cort to enjoy the concerts that are scheduled to welcome 2024.
Likewise, Palma offers you a Three Kings parade full of illusion on the traditional January 5th. The days before, from November 21, Cort places the royal mailbox for the children of Palma to deposit the letters until January 4. It is located in the lobby of City Hall.
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