What will happen with the Cala Mijas site now the music festival won't go ahead?

Lorena Cádiz

Mijas

Monday, 6 May 2024, 18:45

In the first months of 2022, what had been known in Mijas as Cortijo Colorado, was renamed Sonora. A total of 145,000 square metres of municipal land in La Cala de Mijas, located behind a golf course and a residential area, was transformed into a space designed to host macro concerts. The Cala Mijas festival being one of them, was held there at the start of September 2022 and on the same dates in 2023, but it will not return in 2024 due to disagreements between the festival organiser and town hall.

That transformation came with the levelling of a large part of the land, the installation of water and electricity connections, as well as asphalting in another area, and the creation of recreation areas with natural shade from trees. The immense space designed to accommodate up to 50,000 people now faces an uncertain future with the festival no longer set for a 2024 return.

Councillor Juan José Torres Trella said town hall intends to use the land "all year round" and not only "during the three days of concerts that Cala Mijas used to be on for". The estate is classified as a general facility in the urban development plan (PGOU) and assured the proposals currently on the table at its possible usage include celebration of events and sporting activities.

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"One of the problems with the Cala Mijas festival was the town hall made a series of investments in the conditioning of the site that were not its responsibility because it was not the organiser, it was only a sponsor," Torres Trella said. Those investments made at the time are now "being analysed by the court of auditors", the councillor added.

"We have included an item in the municipal budgets to draw up the project that will determine the uses that can be given to the land, which will also allow a safety study to be carried out," he said, insisting the ultimate aim of this process "is to give it a continuous use all year round, always with events and sporting activities in mind".

"Next to the Sonora there is a hill with many trees that allows a multitude of activities and sports in nature, and in the part that was flattened we can create some green areas and use the esplanade for the events themselves, all of this is being studied at the moment."