Palma de Mallorca

Worth arriving in the know: Palma's scene is small and scattered — half a dozen venues, no nightlife street and no gay quarter at all. You walk from one to the next, but you need to know which ones.

The city's gay pub is The2 (calle Pablo Iglesias 12, next to Plaça d'Espanya): open as an LGBTQI+ venue since October 2016, with drag shows at weekends and DJ sets, Wednesday to Sunday and until four. Bar Flexas (calle Llotgeta 12) is the old town's other fixture: premises that have existed since 1944, in the hands of the same partners since 2004, with Mallorcan cooking, drag cabaret nights and themed parties; its Festa Flexas is officially recognised by the city council. Open Tuesday to Saturday. Ca'n Cuir, on Plaça de Sa Quartera 9 since June 2025, is the closest thing to a community centre: a daytime bar with book launches, talks and workshops. La Dama de ELLA (calle Fàbrica), in Santa Catalina, is a café-bar aimed at LGBTI women, with home cooking and late bar nights at weekends. And in El Terreno Bar Michel (avenida de Joan Miró) carries on, a café by day and a neighbourhood bar by night.

The calendar supplies what the rest of the year lacks. On the same weekend as Pride, the promoter Eleven Productions puts on Palma Pride, a few days of ticketed parties: in 2026 the big session was on Saturday 27 June at the Wave Club. And in late August comes ELLA, an international festival for LGBTQI+ women and non-binary people, with a long week of concerts, talks, sport and beach.

Palma's Pride is called by Ben Amics on 28 June, Pride day itself, whether it falls midweek or at the weekend. In 2025 it set off at six in the evening from Passeig des Born under the slogan "Orgullo rural, resistencia diversa", with around a thousand people; that same day the more militant Orgull Crític Mallorca held its own march with around two hundred.

What changed in 2026 was the relationship with the city council. The association had spent a decade putting on the street party together with the city council; this year the council organised it alone, on Saturday the 27th on Plaça Major, with concerts and drag performances. Ben Amics called it pinkwashing, pulled out, filed a complaint over the awarding of the contract and moved much of its programme to the Part Forana, inland Mallorca: the pink siurell and pink demon awards were handed out in Manacor, and there were events in Pollença and Montuïri. On Sunday the 28th both marches left Plaça d'Espanya: Orgull Crític Mallorca at 6.30 pm, to Plaça de les Columnes, under the slogan "Sense permís, revolució cuir"; and Ben Amics at 7 pm, along the avingudes, La Rambla, the Born and Carrer Conquistador to Plaça de Cort, outside the city hall, as a sign of protest. In July the association and the mayor met to narrow their differences.

The rest of the calendar is parties and film. Palma Pride, run by the promoter Eleven Productions, overlaps with those days: in 2026 its big session was on Saturday 27 June at the Wave Club, and the 2024 edition ran from the 27th to the 30th. And the ELLA International Lesbian Festival held its tenth summer edition from 27 August to 4 September 2026, based in Palma with activities across the island.

Palma has no gay quarter, and there's no need to look for one: the venues stand apart and the night out is the city's own. The practical axis runs from the old town to Santa Catalina, twenty minutes' walk end to end.

In the old town, between the cathedral, Plaça Major and Plaça d'Espanya, sit The2, Bar Flexas and Ca'n Cuir. The Sa Gerreria area, the old potters' quarter, has changed most, with new bars along narrow streets. Santa Catalina, to the west, was a district of fishermen and millers and is now the most fashionable, with its traditional market, terraces and La Dama de ELLA on Carrer de la Fàbrica; on its edge stand the five Es Jonquet windmills, a listed historic ensemble since 2009.

El Terreno, between the port and Bellver woods, deserves a separate mention: it was the centre of Palma's nightlife from the sixties to the eighties, around Plaça Gomila, and also the city's "gay space" from the eighties to the early 2000s, according to Última Hora; the first Pride celebrations were held there. Little of that survives: Tito's closed in 2020 and the gay venue still open is Bar Michel. The Pride march runs right through the centre: it leaves Plaça d'Espanya and goes down La Rambla and the Born.

The islands' reference organisation is Ben Amics (calle Guillem Galmés 2), formed in 1991 and registered in 1994, covering Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. It provides social support and advice for LGBTI+ people, a guidance and information service for young people and an open library, as well as calling the Pride march. In 2014 it became the first LGBTI association invited to an institutional event in the Balearics, and each year it hands out the pink siurell and the pink demon to those who advance or set back rights. Its president is Tatiana Casado. Alongside it, Orgull Crític Mallorca represents the more militant wing and calls its own march.

For sexual health the reference is ALAS, the Balearic anti-AIDS association (calle Volta de la Mercè 3): free, confidential rapid tests for HIV, syphilis and hepatitis C by appointment, condom distribution and psychosocial support for people with HIV. The Balearic public health service treats you with a health card and, if you come from the European Union, with the European Health Insurance Card.

Legally, the Balearics have their own law: Law 8/2016, of 30 May, to guarantee LGBTI rights and eradicate LGBTI-phobia, on top of the Spanish national framework. Emergencies, 112.