Date Published: 16/05/2014

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014

Wide range of free concerts for the "Night of the Museums" and Corvera airport continues to occupy column inches

What’s On Murcia Region

This weekend in the Region of Murcia presents a fantastic opportunity to take in a little culture, or, in fact, a lot ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 of culture: the 18^th May is International Museum Day. In commemoration of this event almost all of the museums in the Region are holding open days, with admission free of charge and a wide variety of tours, concerts and events designed to make visits enjoyable for all types of visitor, both young and not so young.

In the city of Murcia all of the main museums are holding free evening concerts, so whether you prefer jazz, classical, pop or big band music there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy a night out in the regional capital. For example, in the normally staid setting of the archaeological museum the sensational Cuban singer Rosa Cruz performs live at 22.00.

The same is true in Cartagena, where there are a host of free cultural opportunities and open-air concerts to choose from in the Noche de los Museos. There are so many different museums and events in Murcia and Cartagena to celebrate ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 Museum Day that it’s impossible to list them here: visit our What’s On section to find the ones which most appeal to you!

The El Cigarralejo museum in Mula is also holding concerts, special events and tours where visitors can learn more about the Iberian culture which dominated southern Spain in the 700 years before the birth of Christ, and the offering is complemented by more events at La Casa Pintada. Similarly, in Alhama de Murcia the Los Baños archaeological museum is holding an evening of free entertainment which includes a guided tour explaining the history of the Arab and Roman baths, and the monthly theatrical visit to the town takes place on Sunday morning, along with the regular artisan fair.

In Bullas the main weekend activities are taking place at the wine museum, and enthusiasts might want to get in early to make their reservations for a special winetasting event in English on 31^st May, while other municipalities with special museum programs this week include Caravaca de la Cruz, La Unión, Blanca, Cehegín and the La Bastida archaeological site in Totana. The saltfish museum in Mazarrón is also holding an open doors morning on Sunday as well as a free concert on Saturday evening.

Apart from Museum Day, the city of Murcia is now in the middle of its fabulous Tres Culturas festival, which ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 features an exotic variety of free concerts from different musical cultures from all over the world. For example, on Friday night there are chances to catch a little Algerian Gnawa blues or Nigerian afrobeat, and between now and next Friday the offerings range from Congolese hip-hop through Magrebi and Syrian music to traditional Japanese, Spanish Celtic and Turkish fusion concerts. There’s certainly something for everyone on offer, and these concerts are well worth a try: admission is free of charge, so even if the music turns out not to be to your liking it needn’t spoil the opportunity to enjoy a warm spring evening in the regional capital.

Other events of note over the next few days include a concert by Pablo López in Cartagena’s El Batel auditorium and an evening of flamenco music and dance in Alhama de Murcia, both on Friday evening, and throughout the weekend Tarzan The Musical is on at the Teatro Romea.

For those of a distinctly more active bent, apart from the Museum Day celebrations and the flamenco concert the municipality of Alhama is also holding a hang-gliding and micro-light festival on Saturday, and to round off ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 the weekend there is an artisan fair in the town centre on Sunday morning.

On the other hand, if you’re a food fan –and let’s face it, who isn’t? – there’s a choice between stand-up snacks as the Los Belones tapas route draws to a close, or gourmet dining in Águilas, where the gastronomy season gets under way with twenty-five restaurants offering special set menus.

As if all that weren’t enough, 15^th May is the feast day of San Isidro, and in various towns where he is the patron saint there are fiestas to mark the occasion. This is the case in Puerto de Mazarrón , Cehegín and Fortuna, for example: click on the links to discover the program of events for the local fiestas.

For some readers the big event of the weekend will be FC Barcelona and Atlético Madrid slugging it out toe-to toe in the final match to decide the winners of the Spanish La Liga this season, but that will all be over by eight o’clock on Saturday evening so there’s no excuse for not getting out and enjoying one of the myriad opportunities to be out and about this weekend!

For a fuller listing of events visit the What’s On section of Murcia Today or try the Events Diary facility which breaks down events day by day.

Murcia news round-up

In the news, meanwhile, the Region of Murcia’s two airports – one open, the other not – continue to attract a ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 great deal of attention. At San Javier passenger numbers continue to suggest that the national airport management company Aena is concentrating on boosting the figures at Alicante-Elche, just 75km away, rather than attracting new services to the Mar Menor airport, while at Corvera, where the brand new Region of Murcia International Airport lies empty while the European Commission debates whether to allow a regional government loan, the number of passengers and planes remains at precisely zero.

However, the tourist season is on the edge of beginning, and the region is preparing for the onslaught. This week it was announced that the number of Blue Flags being flown on the Costa Cálida has risen again this year, and there are now ten in the municipality of Cartagena alone following the addition of Playa Honda and Isla Plana to the list. Águilas runs Cartagena a close second, with eight Blue Flags this summer .

If this does help to attract sufficient numbers to make the airport successful, it would provide some consolation ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 for the Region of Murcia’s taxi-drivers, who are upset that their right to operate services to and from Alicante airport has been restricted and have lodged an official complaint.

Other attractions for visitors from abroad include the regional gastronomy – San Javier has been promoting the “pastel de cierva” in Milan this week - and the fiestas, which over the past week have brought colour and noise to Jumilla and Calabardina.

Elsewhere in the regional news one story to catch the eye was that of a couple of brothel-keepers in Murcia who doubled up as peeping toms, having made closed circuit TV recordings of the establishment’s customers in action, while another to have been found breaking the law was a school bus driver who was under the influence of alcohol at the wheel. Coming just days after the tragedy in Extremadura in which five children lost their lives due to a mechanical digger operator being under the influence of drugs, this is disturbing news.

On a completely different note, the woman who survived being hit by a train in Balsicas must surely be ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 counting herself extremely fortunate: although her injuries are described as “serious”, doctors report that her life is not in danger, and elsewhere in the Region of Murcia the rural crime squad has been busy, arresting various thieves responsible for the disappearance of a range of goods including electricity generators, lambs, a tractor and oranges. The Mazarrón dog pound is also under investigation following reports of cruelty to animals.

Finally, economic news, property sales in the Region of Murcia showed positive results for the month of March, and the financial stability of regional town halls seems to be improving, as spending is brought under control and the brutal costcutting of the alst three years finally seems to be bearing fruit.

Spanish news summary, www.spanishnewstoday.com

A couple of big stories have dominated Spanish news this week, the main one being the murder on Monday of Isabel Carrasco, the present of the provincial government delegation in León who was shot dead in broad ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 daylight while walking to party headquarters. Initially there was a good deal of confusion over the motives of the two murderers, who are the wife and daughter of a police chief inspector, but over the course of the week it has emerged that they harboured a strong personal grudge against Sra Carrasco, whom they held to blame for the daughter’s work difficulties. According to some reports they had attempted to kill the politician on as many as five previous occasions before finally gunning her down on a León bridge on Monday.

Before that story broke, much attention had been focused on the deaths of five children in Extremadura last Friday after the minibus in which they were travelling swerved to avoid a mechanical digger which was being driven by a man who was allegedly under the influence of drugs. Since then worrying stories have come to light of a gas lorry driver six times over the legal alcohol limit in Almería and a school bus driver drunk at the wheel in Murcia, and a report published during the week reveals that almost half of all drivers killed on Spain’s roads last year were under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of their death.

In the property sector there has been relatively good news this week, with prices nearing stability and sales figures rising – for more details see the Spanish News Today bulletin – although Greenpeace have also attracted a lot of attention by paintng the controversial Algarrobico hotel with a demolition message, and ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 another big topic of conversation this week has, as ever, been the weather. After temperatures in the south-east reached close to 35ºC last weekend there was a heatwave in the Canaries this week, and other reminders of the fact that summer is almost upon us were the awarding of a record 681 Blue Flags to Spain’s beaches and marinas, the arrival of the years first plague of jellyfish on beaches in Cádiz and the start of summer in the Canaries with the arrival of 150,000 people to celebrate the Maspalomas Pride festival.

Also in the Canaries, the wildlife of Gran Canaria has been in the spotlight as the authorities grapple with the problem of the invasive Californian kingsnake while at the same time aiming to preserve the 160-million-year-old angel shark, and on the subject of the underwater world it is being claimed that the wreck of the ship in which Columbus discovered America, the “Santa María”, has been discovered off the coast of Haiti. Still underwater, bad news for seafood fans: Galician mussel farms are being temporarily shut down as a result of toxins in the water, so expect price rises in the near future.

Also, in a landmark judgement in Luxembourg the European Court of Justice found in favour of a Spaniard who demanded that Google remove the links between his name and a forced property sale he undertook in 1998, on the grounds that he should be granted “the right to be forgotten”. The potential implications of this judgement are huge: it may be possible for anyone to demand that information be removed from the internet, and many fear that it will open the door to manipulative censorship.

So for more detail and lots more news go to the Spanish News Today bulletin while you still can: we may be obliged to wipe it from the records soon!

Valencia News and Whats on www.valenciatoday.es

A news round-up and whats on can be found in the dedicated Valencia Region weekly bulletin, and news and ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 whats on are updated daily on www.valenciatoday.es,

Most read stories this week include the record air traffic figures for Alicante-Elche airport, the news that property sales in the Valencia Region increased by 20% during March and the revelation that the spate of earthquakes close to the Castor Gas platform were a direct result of liquid gas injections into seabed rock below the installation.

Currency round-up

ARCHIVED - Murcia Today News and What’s On round-up, 16th May 2014 Click for this weeks currency round up showing the exchange rate between Sterling and the Euro. If you would like a free quote to see how much can be saved on regular currency transfers such as a pension, or one-off lump sums such as the purchase of a property, call for a no obligation quote.

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