Calpe will celebrate the 9th of October,
Valencian Community Day, tomorrow with a special programme to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Jaume Pastor i Fluixà Award.
In the morning, the Old Town will host various events such as different ‘Carretons’ outings, simultaneous street performances, traditional games and children's workshops, the inauguration of the sculpture ‘Ensoñación’ by Maggie Poulariani and the preparation of a giant paella in the Plaza del Mosquit.
In the evening at 19:15 there will be an itinerant performance by Masters Ballet accompanied by the Colla de Xirimiters del Carellot with a route from Plaça Colón to Plaça Mayor where, at the end of the performance, the institutional act of the XXX Jaume Pastor i Fluixà -9 d' Octubre Award and Medals of the Town will be held.
The Jaume Pastor i Fluixà - 9 d'Octubre Prize is awarded this year to the Fundació Comunitat Valenciana MARQ and Marq Museo Arqueológico Alicante for their contribution to the recovery and conservation of the archaeological sites of Banys de la Reina and the medieval Pobla d'Ifac.
In addition, several entities and personalities of the municipality will be recognised in their different modalities:
- Citizen Merit: Juan Santos who has been Justice of the Peace until last May after a career of more than 25 years in the Justice of the Peace, first as a substitute judge and since 2011 as a full judge.
- Tourism merit: Jaume Masó: He has been working in the tourism sector for more than 50 years, more than 20 years as commercial director of the Unitursa group, a position from which he has contributed to the opening of new tourist markets for Calpe and consequently to the growth of tourism in the town. He is a reference in the promotion of tourism in Calpe.
- Sporting merit: Jozef Metelka. Slovak cyclist who trains and lives in Calpe for long periods of the year, winner of three medals at the Paralympic Games in Rio, another three in Tokyo and a gold medal at the Paris Games. He is also 15 times world champion.
- Business merit: Pepa Pérez. She is a reference in the world of aesthetics and beauty in Calpe. She opened the first beauty salon in Calpe in 1968 and years later opened Pepa Pérez Esthétic Center in its current location in Plaza Constitución. Brides, festival girls, ladies, Moors and Christians, generations of Calpe inhabitants have passed through her salon. Her professionalism, her work ethic and her search for excellence make her worthy of this recognition.
- Cultural Merit: Marga López. A native teacher from Novelda, she arrived in Calpe as a teacher at the Azorín School in 1983. After a few years teaching in the infant stage, she became a teacher of the second stage, being the Valencian teacher for all the pupils in this stage as she was the only teacher with a degree in Valencian. She was the founder of the association Natura Serpis in the early 1980s. She retired in 2011 after teaching generations of Calpe citizens.
- Premi Jove: Silke Ribes. Currently a student at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid, she has trained with outstanding teachers and in 2020 received the scholarship of the Curtis Summerfest in Philadelphia, a training programme offered by this high-performance institute, considered the best conservatory in the USA, as well as having won numerous awards despite her youth.
- Corbata de la Vila: Cofradía Virgen de los Dolores. In the 1990s, a tradition was established whereby the 18 year olds of the current year's Festivities Commission carried the image of Our Lady of Sorrows in the Good Friday procession. This is a recent custom but full of meaning as all the boys and girls of the Festivities Commission are involved in weeks of rehearsals in order to carry the image of the Dolorosa. In addition, the work of the women in charge of dressing the Virgin throughout history is also recognised.
These awards recognise the work of individuals, groups and institutions that have worked for the municipality from different fields and bear the name of the late Calpe historian Jaume Pastor i Fluixà. The event will begin with the reading of an institutional manifesto.