Eurovision time

BENIDORM will once again host the search to find Spain’s Eurovision Song Contest entry at the end of the month.

Benidorm Fest 2023 will stage the semi-finals on January 31 and February 2 at the Palacio de Deportes with the grand final on February 4. Tickets for all three nights were sold out within minutes of going on sale, with the event screened by TVE.

Some 18 singers and groups will fight it out to represent Spain in Liverpool this May.

After years of lacklustre entries, Spain moved to a festival format in Benidorm last year. The winner was SloMo sung by Chanel, which finished a very respectable third in Turin.

CRUEL?: No horses were hurt, claim participants pandemic last year, but with pandemic restrictions still in force. This year the 200-year-old event saw 120 horses and donkeys going through the cobbled village streets of San Bartolome de Pinares, near Avila with no such restrictions.

The strange ritual is in memory of a devastating epidemic that wiped out a large part of the area’s cattle and horses. The bonfire smoke from bonfires is meant to drive away evil spirits. For an event that celebrates animal well-being, it has attracted controversy over the way the horses are treated.

The National Association for the Protection and Welfare