Which parties is Cristina Macaya hosting this summer? Have you been invited; can you get me on the list? Spaniards and foreigners that spend their summers on the island have been asking the same question for the last twenty years, ever since Majorca’s godmother, as she was affectionately nicknamed by close friend and confident, writer Carlos Fuentes, set up home at Es Canyar. His widow spent her first summer alone in the home of our magnificent hostess. Indeed, Es Canyar is one of the best-known and most... welcoming - yet at the same time discrete - homes you could imagine; a kind of fortress of glamour in the heart of the Mediterranean. A possessió - the local name for a large country estate - that reflects the stately Tuscan style of Majorca’s country homes that Macaya chose precisely because it was some distance from the coast, which is packed with ghettos filled with those longing to see and be seen. On Majorca she welcomes guests in a setting nestling between mountains and almond groves, fruit orchards, aromatic plants, bougainvilleas and agapanthus or sculptures such as those by  Xavier Corberó that stand ready to greet visitors next to the fountain and the pool, wrapped up in an atmosphere of total peace. Blissful peace.

 

Such is the magical atmosphere that has been carefully crafted in the likeness of our eclectic culture, meticulously conserving every piece of the myriad jigsaw that forms Majorca. Cristina Macaya’s arrival revolutionised the island, bringing with it radical changes to the habits and customs of a closed, elitist society, that witnessed open-mouthed the emergence of a new way of behaving and doing things that finds room for anyone ready to add a touch of cheer and optimism.  

 

Majorca’s Caprice is a space where  there is room for apparently sharply contrasting personalities: Isabel Preysler and Miguel Boyer, Elena Benarroch and  Miguel Bosé, Prince and Princess Michael of Kent, Bill Clinton, former Spanish Presidents Adolfo Suárez and Felipe González, Plácido Arango, the Cisneros family from Venezuela, Emiliano Revilla, Carmen Posadas, taken under the island’s wing at her most difficult time, Marina Castaño, Barbara Walters, Michael Douglas, a regular each summer, together with Catherine Z. Jones, everyone’s darling. And when they leave S’Estaca, the fabulous possessió that once belonged to Archduke Ludwig Salvator of Habsburg, they are replaced by Diandra, a warm and welcoming hostess that holds a special place in everyone’s hearts.   

 

This is the island where the artists that brighten up unforgettable nights of vernissage work, rest and play.  Ramón Canet, Ben and Yannik Jakober, María Carbonero, Pep Sirvent, Joan Costa, Menéndez Rojas, Francesca Martí, Natasha Zupan, Amador, Joan Bennàssar, Miquel Barceló, Susy Gómez as well as gallery owners such as Pepe Pinya, Joan Guaita, Juan Antonio Horrach Moyà, Jero Martínez, Gehard Braun, Xavier Fiol, Mercedes Estarellas - just a few of the names that play a fundamental role on the art scene. Without forgetting personalities that go unnamed yet who are absolute musts in Majorcan society. Indeed, this is the secret to social success: diversity and a cosmopolitan melting pot of aristocracy, royalty, big business and fashion. Valentino is a regular visitor, staying on board his yacht Blue One, where he plays the perfect host to his closest friends.  Marieta Salas, a breeder of Arabian thoroughbred horses. Other leading lights include the influential March family, owners of the island’s first fortune set a world apart from the rest and discrete yet busy hosts.  Manolo March Cencillo is the personification of such refined good taste that it is practically impossible to imitate, even though every summer many do their best. There is always a before and after any event he hosts.

 

I would like to propose a quick tour of the latest events and venues that are always top of the VIP diaries. Have you got yours ready? You must have, because that is precisely what we are looking at.

 

This is my Caprice.