The Parc Municipal de sa Torre in Felanitx was in chaos on Monday as the town’s festivities for the Sant Agustí festival took place. Dozens of young people jumped over the fence to gain access to the celebration, which had limited seating capacity. Moreover, the capacity was reduced due to the consequences of the storm. Faced with the overcrowding of people who wanted to access the festival, Felanitx Town Hall has apologised to the Felanitxers and Felanitxeres who were unable to enjoy the festival normally. In fact, they claim, many people gave up and left early when they saw the situation, the queues and the avalanche of people congregated outside the venue.

According to the City Council itself, the problem began at 20:00, when an avalanche of people arrived and congregated near the municipal park. There were as many as 5,000 people outside when the capacity was already full. In this sense, the Consistory wanted to make it clear that the capacity of the park was not exceeded at any time. “There were 7,000 people, which was the maximum capacity foreseen after having had to reduce the maximum by 1,000 people due to the damage to the stage caused by the storm on Sunday,” they explained.

The next verbena will be paid

The mayoress of Felanitx, Catalina Soler, and her government team, announced that for next year’s Sant Agustí festivities, “drastic measures” will be taken to avoid a repetition of this situation. In this sense, the verbena Kais will not be held on the day of Sant Agustí and will become a paying event for people over 18 years of age. All of this, they added, to avoid the “call effect”. The option of creating a wristband or a badge for residents of the municipality will also be considered, as well as creating two different entrances, one for registered residents and the other for non-residents.

The mayoress of Felanitx concluded that they will study “all the possibilities so that the day of Sant Agustí is for the enjoyment of the people of the municipality. What we cannot allow is for a festival to sully the name of Felanitx and much less damage the festivities, because above all they are made for the Felanitxers to enjoy them to the full”.