Formentera traditions
Traditional music is still very much alive in Formentera. The ball pagès (folk dance) is not just a showpiece but part of the people's festive expression, never missing from island fiestas (Santa Maria, 5th August; Sant Ferran, 30th May; Nostra Senyora del Carme, 16th July; Sant Jaume, patron of the island, 25th July; El Pilar, 12th October; Sant Francesc Xavier, 3rd December).
Along with traditional music, música de raíces has taken strong hold in Formentera: young local performers compose their own creations going back to their roots in traditional folk music.
Formentera's arts and crafts are varied and reflect the island's newfound diversity. In the La Mola bazaar (on late Sunday afternoons during the summer), naturalized Formenterans from distant places offer their wares of jewellery, paintings, ceramics, clothing, and a long, wide-ranging etcetera, all of which can be purchased in the knowledge that handcrafted production of all these goods is guaranteed by the commission of craftsmen that organizes the market. Together with such items of cosmopolitan inspiration, visitors will find others that are more traditional, such as thick hand-knitted sweaters of crude Formenteran wool.
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