Sporting activities, music and literature are three of the main attractions of the Santa Gertrudis festival programme, which opens this week with the traditional card game championships. The Simple Rock concert in the church square on Friday, 12th November will be the first big event of the festivities. Two other musical performances are planned: on Saturday, 13th at the same place there will be a Pasados de Vuelta and Morning Drivers double bill, while on Tuesday, 16th, the big day, Rebeca Gamboa will be performing.
This Saturday there will be three other important events. First, the easy guided tour leaving from the square at 10am. The children’s party will start at the same time, with face painting, workshops, a second-hand market and a performance by Mag Albert, all in collaboration with Amipa. At 7pm Emmanuela Torres will sign copies of her novel ‘Destellos de danza. In search of a dream’.
The programme concludes on 8th December with a mass to bid farewell to the parish priest Jaiver Alonso.
Sunday will be the day of the tribute to the parish elders, one of the most traditional days of the festivities as it brings together the slingshot shooting championship, the sonada by the Grupo de Bailes Tradicionales de Santa Gertrudis and the play ‘Es Festeig de Can Panxo’, by the Associació de Vesins Es Molí de Sant Antoni. Pep Xumeu will also present his book ‘Pous i fonts de Santa Gertrudis’. Throughout the weekend there will be a succession of sporting activities, from football to horse riding, including tennis and the II Gincana Ciclista (2nd Cycling Gymkhana) for children and young people up to the age of 16.
Tuesday, 16th, the patron saint’s day, will be celebrated with mass, a procession and ball pagès, weather permitting.
On 21 November, among other things, there will be “pagès” bingo, in the Club de Persones Majors bar.
The festival programme will close on the evening of 8th December with a mass to bid farewell to Jaiver Alonso Betancourt, who has been the parish priest of Santa Gertrudis for the last few years. The Coro Rociero de Santa Eulària (Santa Eulària Choir) will perform.