Last week, a group of residents met at the Playa Flamenca Town Hall where they announced the establishment of a committee that would be responsible for the organisation of fiestas and parades on the coast.
Envious at the joy and colour that such occasions bring to local villages and towns, but disappointed by the lack of initiative and support provided to such events on the coast, by the Orihuela municipal councillor and the councillor for fiestas, residents have taken matters into their own hands with the creation of their own Festival Commission.
After announcing the board and outlining its proposed responsibilities at a gathering in the town hall salon, they revealed that they are already in the process of arranging a calendar of festivals through the commission, the first of which will be held on Saturday 17 February, for which no less than 27 troupes have already agreed their participation.
There will be four invited troupes from Torrevieja and Pilar de la Horadada and the rest will be made up from the Orihuela Costa schools, the IES Playa Flamenca, local dance schools, the Civic Centre, the AMPAs and the neighbourhood associations and different nationalities, with the proposed route around Playa Flamenca and Los Dolses.
The promoters confirm that they have the support of the Orihuela City Council and that they will be asking for financial support. “If there is no financial support, which the City Council has already told us that it is unlikely, they will provide us with a stage and music.
We will also have the support of sponsors, since many businessmen from the coast have shown interest in there being as many events here as in the city and in the districts,” according to the president of the Orihuela Costa Festival Commission, Rosa Cárcamo, whose board is made up of eight members.
Thereafter they propose to celebrate local festivals during the month of June, from the 23rd to the 30th, around San Juan and the beginning of summer, “with activities in all the neighbourhoods, thus seeking the involvement of all the Orihuela Costa residents”.
The calendar will continue on 31 October when, together with residents and business owners in La Florida and Las Filipinas, their plan is to assist with the organisation of a Halloween parade, already a, annual event in the area, but with which they might be able to help or call on additional support.
Their final objective is to close the festive calendar with the now traditional Christmas party on the La Zenia beach on 25 December, something they will promote with the help of the Cabo Roig and Lomas Neighbourhood Association. Until now this party has had no formal organisation or authorisation and been organised spontaneously with residents simply turning up on the day.
In recent years, this massive gathering has established itself as a regular and extremely popular event in Orihuela Costa that brings together thousands of foreign residents who congregate on the beach, many dressed as Santa Claus, to celebrate Christmas with their barbecues.
In the last plenary session, the Cabo Roig y Lomas Neighbourhood Association addressed a question to the Councilor for the Coast, Manuel Mestre, about whether it envisaged better organisation in the future. The association asked that the festival lose its spontaneous character and be formally adopted by the authorities so that it can have the support of the municipal council with police supervision, toilets and regulated organisation, something to which it seems that the City Council has agreed and that it intends to resolve with the provision of an ambulance and Local Police patrols.
The idea of the festival commission arose from the need to establish and consolidate festivals on the coast, which, the commission stated, “could be so important to its economy and its future development”. As such this group of residents, together with supporters from other local associations, decided to announce this project and thus provide more leisure opportunities to residents and to visitor.
They added that the calendar is still open to the addition of possible future parties.
The residents of Orihuela Costa have now decided to join together to create this festival commission since they have few celebrations in the area and many of those tend to be centred around Zenia Boulevard. The intention of this commission is to organize activities in all the neighbourhoods of the Oriola coast “because we want to integrate the entire coast,” explains Cárcamo.
Whilst the Cabo Roig y Lomas Neighbourhood Association supports the project its spokesman informed the festival commission that its membership is currently on hold “until, at a future general assembly the Commission provides the opportunity for all other associations in Orihuela Costa to join the grouping “.
