There is one specific week each year when Mallorca's cultural calendar turns over. The summer festivals play their last concert, the season's exhibitions come down, and what follows has a different temperature. This is that week.

In nine days the 65th Pollença International Music Festival closes, one of Es Baluard's most talked-about exhibitions ends, Santa Ponça burns its Nit de Foc, and half the island's villages compress their end-of-August festes into a single night. If you were going to pick one week to go out, this is it.

If you only go out once

Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana — Sunday 30 August, 10pm, Convent de Sant Domingo, Pollença. Tickets €40–45.

This is the closing concert of the 65th Pollença International Music Festival, and the programme makes no concessions: Elgar's Enigma Variations Op. 36 and Beethoven's Seventh, played by the resident orchestra of the Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía under Sir Mark Elder, who brings an authority to Elgar that is hard to find outside Britain. The Sant Domingo cloister, open-air at ten at night in late August, is probably the finest accidental concert hall on the island.

Monday 31: the fullest night of the summer

This is not an impression. On 31 August there are more than seventy events running at once, because half a dozen village festes collide with the indoor programme. Most are free and happen in a village square; these are the ones that cost a ticket and are worth it:

• Ara Malikian, 10pm at Port Adriano, €50. The fourteenth PAM, Calvià's marina festival. The week's big spend.
• Andrés Suárez + Cabot, 9pm at Castell de Sant Carles, €32. The Galician songwriter on his *Lúa* tour, part of the Nits de Sant Carles.
• Pep Garau Sextet, 9pm at Castell de Bellver, €10. Palma Jazz Festival, with a trumpeter twenty-odd years into his career. The best cheap ticket of the week.
• ES JARDÍ: Los Delinqüentes + DJ Cipy, 10pm at the Mallorca Live site, €20. Touring the twenty-fifth anniversary of their debut.
• Nits de Flamenc, 9pm at Teatre Sans, €25. Flamenco fusion in a 14th-century Gothic house; the Sans is a small room and that works in its favour. If Monday does not work, it runs again on Wednesday 2.

Festes del Rei En Jaume, Santa Ponça

The Festes del Rei En Jaume take over Santa Ponça from 26 August to 6 September. They are Calvià's most emblematic celebration: commemorative acts, the landing, and the battle re-enactment.

The moment to put in the diary is the Nit de Foc, Tuesday 1 September at 10pm in Plaça de la Pinada, with the Dimonis de Calvià and a gathering of demons and mythological creatures. It is free. If you are bringing children, the standing advice applies: old clothes, covered arms, a hat. The battle re-enactment is Saturday 5 at 5.30pm, in the same place.

September starts

• Joan Miquel Oliver, Tuesday 1 at 8pm at Can Prunera, Sóller, €25. Solo, in the sculpture garden. A garden holds what a garden holds: do not think about it too long.
• Clara Peya, Tuesday 1 at 9pm in Plaça Alexandre Ballester, sa Pobla, €24. Piano and composition in a language entirely her own.
• ES JARDÍ: Delaossa + Serralta Players, Tuesday 1 at 10pm at the Mallorca Live site, €30.
• Da Braccio Quartet, Saturday 5 at 8pm at Palau Can Vivot, €20–30. The Mallorcan string quartet at FestMusic Mallorca, with works by Toldrà, Wu Man and Bernshoof.
• Orquestra de Cambra de Mallorca, Saturday 5 at 9pm at Castell de Bellver, €30–40. Nits a Bellver goes all-Mahler: the Adagio from the Tenth and the First, the *Titan*, conducted by Bernat Quetglas.
• AMFF: Leonor Watling, Sunday 6 at 8pm at La Misericòrdia, part of the Atlàntida Mallorca Film Fest. Sold out, but worth knowing about for next year.

Exhibitions: what closes, what stays

Sunday 30 August is the last day of Jannis Kounellis. Laberint sense parets at Es Baluard. If you have been putting it off all summer, this is the weekend. PHOF Mallorca PhotoFest at the Can Bordils municipal archive closes the same day.

What stays, and stays a while: Katharina Grosse. Arrels at Es Baluard until 31 January 2027, with the Llotja turned into a field of colour; Retrobar Miró. La guspira màgica at the Fundació Miró until April 2027; and BIENNAL B: Albano Afonso until October. None of the three is in a hurry, but the Grosse is the one that changes most with the hour of day you visit.

Before you go

The times and prices here are what we had at the time of writing. Village festivals in particular change their programme at short notice. Always confirm with the organiser before travelling, and if you spot something wrong, tell us.

You can browse everything on this week in the full guide, or filter by music, classical, exhibitions and festivals.