New Year's Walk: Music, Dance and Sibylline Chant at the Raixa Estate

New Year's Walk: Music, Dance and Sibylline Chant at the Raixa Estate

An open event for all ages on January 3

When the air in the Bunyola valley is still cool and the sun slowly climbs above the cypresses of the Raixa estate, scenes will be heard and seen at several points across the property. On Saturday, January 3, between 11:30 and 14:00, the Consell de Mallorca invites you to a musical walk that brings together classical sounds, choral singing and traditional practice.

The stations are spread through the historic garden and around the manor house verandas. Musicians from the Orquesta Camerata Balear will perform there, joined by the Orfeón Balear. Singing, small dances and musical fragments are not meant to unfold on a stage but in the middle of the space — among orange trees, old stone walls and views of the Tramuntana.

A special chapter is devoted to the Sibylline chant. This old liturgical-theatrical tradition, which is still alive in the Balearic Islands, is given space around Raixa, almost as if the stones have heard the text before. For visitors, this means a rare opportunity to experience the voices in their original, darker setting.

Admission is free. The program is aimed at families, the curious, music lovers and people who want a quiet January morning walk with cultural added value. There are no fixed seats; visitors move from station to station — a movement that suits this place: walk, pause, listen, continue.

Those arriving by car notice the change at the last turn towards Bunyola: narrower roads, scattered houses, the smell of pine on cold days. At a small parking area conversations often take place — tourists, neighbours, people from Palma stretching their legs. All of this makes the visit feel less like a concert and more like a shared ramble.

Why is this good for Mallorca? Events like this link living tradition with places that otherwise remain behind walls; similar island celebrations are described in Diada de Mallorca 2025: A Stroll Through History, Art and Warm Ensaimadas. Raixa is not an open-air museum but an estate and garden with history. When sound arises in an unusual place, visitors become for a moment part of that history — helping cultural heritage to be not only preserved but experienced.

Practical information: wear a warm jacket, sturdy shoes, and a thermos is useful. Photos are allowed, but if you are after the atmosphere, leave your phone in your pocket for a while and listen. For families with small children the route is comfortable; there are no long stretches on foot and there are seating spots on the terraces.

The organizers emphasize that this is not a competition or a forced program. It's about encounters — with music, with people and with the place itself. Those who then take a walk in the olive groves at the back of the property will notice the melodies lingering, even if only footsteps and the distant jingling of a donkey are audible.

For January this is a small, fine start to the year: an afternoon with no admission fee, with voices and instruments sounding between walls and trees, and context for the season can be found in coverage such as New Year's Eve in Mallorca 2025: Glamour, Culinary Delights and Cozy Alternatives. Welcoming, calm, a little surprising — a good way to begin the first days of the new year.