Thousands of members of the Clubs enjoy the Playbacks Contest on ‘Day of Penyes’

The Peñista collective of Benidorm lived yesterday the traditional 'Dia de les Penyes', a day organized by the Association of Penyes Verge del Sofratge, which serves as a prelude to the Festes Majors Patronals, which was held from the morning in the auditorium Julio Churches of the Parque de l'Aigüera, and which was marked by the Children's and Adult Playbacks Contests. As a novelty compared to previous editions, this year the Adult Playback was developed in two modalities: ‘musical’ and ‘humorous’.

Peña L'Amagatall with its tribute to the movie 'The great showman' won the first prize of the Adult Playback Contest in the 'musical' mode, while El Parotet and its 'Nightmare before the Holidays' - with references to the next election on November 10 - prevailed in the 'humorous'. Both prizes were endowed with 1,000 euros.

The second prize, of 700 euros, in the modality of ‘musical’ went to Perduts al Carrer with ‘High school musical’; the third, for the ‘Wizard of Oz’ of La Resistència; and ‘The Little Prince’ of Ni Pa Tu Ni Pa Mi won 100 euros for the fourth prize. In the "humorous" section, the jury awarded the second prize to the tribute to Raffaella Carrá of A Tot Arreu; the third, of 300 euros, went to ‘Et dones Queen’ from El Paparinell; and closed the L’Esquirol podium with his ‘Badly’.

The mayor, Toni Pérez; the Councilor for Fiestas, Jesús Carrobles; the Queens of the Festes Majors Patronals, Marina Carrillo and Paula Mayor; the presidents of the Association of Penyes and the Comissió, Coli Pérez and Roberto Carretero; and the director of Los 40 Benidorm, Baldomero Giménez, were responsible for delivering the prizes to the winners.

In addition to the award-winning clubs, they also participated in the Arribem a l’Hora (musical), Empetats i Serà Per Diners (humorous), and La Castanya + Melomanics (humorous) competition.

In the Children's Playbacks, the winner was Pemb Sembrant Festa, who with her recreation of ‘Aladdin and Prince Ali’ won 300 euros of the first prize. The girls from El Melic and their ‘Wannabe’ from the Spice Girls won the second prize; and El Paparinell and his message against sexual assaults to the sound of Dua Lipa got the third position.

The Kids category also included the Quin Cacau, La Resistència, El Parotet, A Tot Arreu, El Gos i la Tortuga, Ni Pa Tu Ni Pa Mi + Ja Estem de Volta, and Quina Metxa.

Outside the contest, the playbacks starring the ladies and queens of the Festes Majors Patronals could be seen. The children's ladies opted for a playback based on Queen's greatest hits, and the older ones staged a set of the Moulin Rouge soundtrack.

The ‘Day of the Penyes’ started in the morning with the traditional Peñista breakfast at Casa del Fester. From there, and in parades, the Board of Directors moved it to the church of Sant Jaume and Santa Anna, where at 10.00 a Mass was celebrated in honor of the Virgin of the Suffrage and the deceased rockers.

About the same time a new edition of the Gymkana began in the Julio Iglesias del Parque de l’Aigüera auditorium, in which the participating clubs had to deploy their ingenuity and grace to complete the different tests of the competition. The first prize went to the communion of the clubs Al Pa, Pa i al Vi Com Bojos, La Castanya and La Cercavila, who will be in charge of organizing this event next year.

Subsequently, the smallest peñistas enjoyed inflatable castles installed in the Julio Iglesias auditorium, where the traditional ‘picaeta’ was also celebrated, among which the mayor, the Councilor for Fiestas and members of the Municipal Corporation participated.