Magaluf turns a new page with literature festival
It may be more widely known as a wild party destination but the Spanish resort is also the surprising location for what turned out to be a successful book festival
When I told my dad that I was writing a feature about a literature festival in Magaluf, he laughed. “Sure, you’d write that before you even get to Magaluf! Fish bowls of vodka, hen parties, sunburnt Irish as far as the eye can see…”
“Yeah,” I replied, “but I want to leave myself open to being surprised. Or to the possibility that there may be no surprise at all.”
A cursory internet search throws up a TripAdvisor thread titled: ‘‘Another TV Programme on Magaluf.” The resort, infamously nicknamed ‘Shagaluf’, has become a cultural reference point for British and Irish people boozed up abroad. The Magaluf Weekender, Sun Sex and Suspicious Parents, Young, Dumb and Locked Up in the Sun; the number of reality TV programmes that capture the chaos is endless, as are the voyeuristic viewers who prefer to take part in such antics from the safety of their couch.
