Just when we thought the festival period was over in Ibiza, San José takes it turn at a month long plus set of events for everyone, with sporting cultural and gastronomic events throughout the month till 10 April. Read on for our spin on the event highlights and check out the full programme here (in Spanish and Catalan only).
One of the first public events takes place this Saturday 5 March with a parade of demons at 11pm in the main street of San José, who in typical Catalan-style will be swinging and twirling fire-lit batons to ward off the spirits. Before that several bars are offering a special drink and a tapas for €2.50 from 8.30pm with live music and DJs in each one. Head for either Es Galliner, Racó Verd, Can Llorenç, Can Bernat Vinya or Can Xicu bar to warm up for later.
Other highlights are the Flower Power events on 12 March starting at San José's municipal swimming pool from 10.30am with Flower Polo, including several water polo matches and a synchronized swimming display. At 11am in San José's Church Square is Mini Flower Power, an event for kids to get dressed as hippies and get on down with magic shows, games aplenty and lots of dancing. In the same place at 10pm, it's the adults' time to do their own hippy shake with DJs Pharma and Javi, classic rock, lots of psychedelic colours and lasers and more bell-bottomed trousers than the 70s. Peace, love and Ibiza!
The Day of San Jose is on 19 March and is the actual festival of the Saint. There's a rock climbing festival at the Vertical Centre, near the Citröen garage on the San Jose road. Kids between the ages of four and 17 are welcome plus the event is organised by the long-standing Climbing Club of Ibiza, so safety is assured plus English, Spanish and Italian spoken. Then, one for families is the live magic show in Can Jeroni at 9pm with Pablo Superstar, followed by a Michael Jackson tribute at 10pm. A great way to wind down the day.
Sweeping forward to 26 March there's the free-to-attend Pepe Rock Festival featuring local band, The Frigolos as the opening act; emblems of Spanish pop ‘n' rock Kiko Veneno and La Frontera join in on the action too. Starting at 9pm in the car park at Cas Vildo, the event, now in its 22nd edition attracts people from all over the island, make sure you are one of them.
If you have missed out on the festivals earlier this year across the island, you haven't in fact missed out at all. Festival time in Ibiza is what they say the locals get up to outside of the hectic summer season. Go and discover for yourself.
WORDS: Julian Heathcote
