Valentina Almodóbar Climent and Laia Zamora Picó, Queens of the Festes Majors Patronals of Benidorm in 2024

Valentina Almodóbar Climent and Laia Zamora Picó are now officially the Queens of the Festes Majors Patronals of Benidorm for 2024. Benidorm Palace nightclub has hosted this Sunday the Gala of Election and Coronation of the highest festive representatives of the municipality. This gala has brought together more than 1,200 people in what is one of the most exciting and applauded events of the entire city's festive calendar.

The mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, chaired the event together with the president of the Commission of Festes Majors Patronals 2024, María Dolores Cano, and the perpetual president of this commission, Francisco Llorens Orts, Paco Rosera. All of them have been accompanied by numerous members of the Municipal Corporation, among them the mayor of Fiestas, Mariló Cebreros; the mayor and regional deputy, José Ramón González de Zárate; or Senator Agustín Almodóbar, who has watched exultantly as luck chose his eldest daughter as queen of the Loca Fiestas. Likewise, there has also been a wide representation of festive and civic associations and entities, among them Camareres y Mariners de la Mare de Déu del Sofratge, Costalers de Sant Jaume, the ACR La Barqueta, the Associació de Penyes Verge del Sofratge, among others.

Unlike in previous years, on this occasion, the appointment of the city's top festive representatives has taken place in the same Election and Coronation ceremony and not in two different galas. For this reason, in addition to the crowning of the two Queens took place the imposition of the sash on the girls and young girls who will make up the 2024 Courts of Honor.

The event began shortly after 11 a.m., with the arrival on stage of the banner carried by a member of the 2024 commission and accompanied by the honorary president of the Commissió de Festes in perpetuity, Francisco Llorens Orts. This festive emblem preceded the Comissió flag carried by the 2023 standard bearer, Gregorio Devesa Somolinos, after which the president of the Comissió, María Dolores Cano, welcomed all attendees to formally begin the event.

The members of the 2023 Courts of Honor were then called to the stage before the entire auditorium stood up to receive last year's Queens, Angélica Morenilla Such and Daniela Talavera Ventura.

Next, the ten girls who make up the Courts of Honor of the 2024 Festivities have been presented: Paula Agulló Riquelme, María Iborra García, Nerea Martín Ruiz, Carla Moragón Bruna, Sara Rosado Mesa, Elena Sierra Grau, Júlia Solbes de la Barrera, Yaiza Soler Megido, Mar Such Molina and Laia Zamora Picó.

With all the bouquet of children's ladies on stage, the presentation of the 27 young women who will form the greater Court of Honor has begun, among whom are Claudia Acosta Buitrago, Valentina Almodóbar Climent, Marta Álvarez Sánchez, Marina Berna Fenoll, Sofía Calzada Esteve, Mireia Camacho Berenguer, Adriana Crespillo Busuioc, Daniela Ferrer Pascual, Laura Gallego Carrasco, Júlia Gómez Martínez, Paula González de Zárate Such, Marina Guijarro Correia, Mekbeb Lucía Hernández Torrado, Ana Martínez Barahona, Leyre Martínez Bou, Ana Martínez Llorca, Blanca Morant Ferrando, Mireia Moreno Soler, Claudia Muñoz Martínez, Aitana Orquín Lázaro, Nuria Pina Llorca, Marta Quer Villatoro, Malena Sas Esteve, Paula Segarra Sánchez, Marina Vaquer Mas, Adriana Villalgordo Alacid and Mercedes Villena Jacinto.

The most exciting moment of the morning was when it was time to leave everything in the hands of luck. In the presence of the notary José Ramón Rius, the Children's Queen of 2023 was the first to extract the ball with the name of her successor, with her honour falling on the girl Laia Zamora Picó. After her, last year's senior Queen was in charge of drawing the name of the new festive representative from a glass, in the midst of a stony silence that lasted while the candidates were being named one by one and that preceded a great ovation after learning that Valentina Almodóbar Climent will be the Queen of the Major Patron Festivities in 2024.

After a short break to change the festive dresses and settings, the event resumed giving way to the farewell of Daniela Talavera Ventura and Angélica Morenilla Such, who jointly gave an emotional speech. Afterwards, sashes and crowns were imposed on her successors for 2024, who then did the same with all the children and older ladies.

The doctor from Benidorm Eusebi Chiner, pulmonologist and head of the Pulmonology service at Hospital de Sant Joan d'Alacant and director of the Multidisciplinary Sleep Unit of the same hospital, has had the honour of being the chairman of this event, in which he has reviewed before all attendees part of the history of Benidorm and some of the most characteristic traditions of our Festes Majors Patronals. Among them, the intense cold experienced during the 2001 Festivities, in which he was a town crier; or his passion for singing Romanç and the Copletes a la Mare de Déu, in which he has been participating uninterruptedly since the 1978 Festival, when he joined the group of until then four men who were in charge of it: Jaime Pérez Llorens, 'Llugueret'; Bartolomé Cervera; Vincent Serna; and Jaume Rostoll Cortés, 'Cabera'. After recalling how Benidorm has evolved, but at the same time how it has managed to maintain its essence of that town of men of the sea, he has also explained the evolution that in turn has occurred with the song of les Copletes and has invited all present to participate in them, as a “living, natural and spontaneous act of our history as a people.”

Finally, the mayor of Benidorm, Toni Pérez, has taken the stage to present the City Council medal to the maintainer, the president of the Commission and the newly elected Queens of the 2024 Festivals. Pérez has also taken the floor to praise and thank the role that the Queens of 2023 and their Corts of Honor have played throughout the past year and has congratulated Eusebi Chiner, María Dolores Cano and all their mayors for the organization of this event. Likewise, the first mayor has referred to Valentina and Laia, as well as all of their dames, to whom he has wished “all the best” during this year. The mayor said he invited them to “enjoy knowing that you have a Commission dedicated to it and a town and its City Council at your side so that it will be an unforgettable year for you and also for our city.”

Finally, the councillors of the Municipal Corporation have presented flowers to all the ladies of 2024, before giving way to the associations and civic and festive entities of the city, who have paid homage to the Queens of 2024, as a memory of such a special day.

Finally, the interpretation of the anthems of Benidorm and the Valencian Community brought this Election and Coronation gala to an end.