After all the controversy over the timing of the switching-on of the Christmas lights in Palma, they were finally and officially turned on at seven this evening. Mayor José Hila and the councillor for citizen participation, Eva Frade, were there to flick the switch, though the lighting-up had started an hour and a half before the ceremony in the Plaça de la Reina. Lights "carriers" lit three routes from the calle Oms, La Rambla and the Plaça Santa Eulàlia before arriving in the Born.
Meanwhile, the nativity and the royal mailbox at the town hall were inaugurated at six o'clock, and half an hour later there were acrobats and visual effects in the Plaça de la Reina.
There were more than fifty activities in all. These took place in Palma's neighbourhoods as well as in the centre.
The festive season will last until Three Kings (the lights will stay on until the Sant Sebastià fiestas later in January). The New Year celebrations will be centred on the Born and not the town hall square because of building work. There will be a concert that will be interrupted at ten to midnight for a "mapping" spectacular to be projected onto the Casal Solleric, and the party with DJs will go until three in the morning.
Because of the building work in the Plaça Cort, the Three Kings will appear on the balcony of the Casal Solleric rather than the town hall.