Ondara, the small town in Alicante known as Nebulossa, is getting ready to dress up next Saturday for a party to follow the performance of Zorra at the Eurovision Festival in Malmö (Sweden). The town hall has set up a giant screen to enjoy the contest of Mery Bas and Mark Dasousa from the municipal bullring, where there will be a full house for a great party. The mayor of Ondara, the socialist José Ramiro, explained to EFE that on Saturday from 5 pm until late at night, the Nebulossa Europarty will take place in the bullring, an event suitable for all audiences and will include, in addition to the giant screen, food trucks, DJ, entertainment, and a children’s area.

It will be the tribute of the neighbors to the great challenge of Mark, known for years for having a music production company, Atomic Studio, which works with groups that sing in the Valencian language; and of Mery, whom they have seen for years in her beauty salon. The evening will have its focal point in a packed bullring where more than 3,400 tickets at 5 euros (children under 12 free) have been sold out for a ’tardeo’ with performances by the groups Locomía and OBK before the main event coinciding with the broadcast by RTVE of the Festival from Malmö and the characteristic ceremony of the following scores. Although that party will be the center of attention, the town hall will ask residents a few days before to warm up by decorating their streets with pink fabrics, a color that accompanies the aesthetics of Nebulossa, and will also encourage them to place festival posters on balconies with messages of support for Mery and Mark, ”the best ambassadors of Ondara in the world”.

For this town of just over 7,000 inhabitants, the choice of Nebulossa has gone from being a ”surprise” to being a success in itself for the national and international promotion of the municipality, and this is reflected in the fact that since the selection in the Benidorm Fest, searches for the name of the town on the Internet have multiplied. ”’Zorra’ breaks the stereotype” Regarding the controversy over the title and lyrics of Zorra, the mayor explained that it ”breaks the stereotype” around that word and added that ”although initially there was an attempt to generate a false discussion, soon the whole town rallied around” Mery and Mark, ”because we are delighted to see them succeed around the world”.

Five hundred residents of Ondara supported and bid farewell to the couple last Monday at their final event before traveling to Sweden, a day when they received the honorary title of ambassadors of Ondara, a recognition that will be endorsed at the next municipal council meeting. ”We are two from Ondara going to Eurovision,” Mark summarized at that farewell on Monday, reflecting, according to the mayor, ”that Nebulossa has its feet on the ground and firmly rooted in the town.” Ramiro will travel to Malmö to attend the gala and have the privilege of seeing ”two neighbors from here, very close and very much from the town” perform live, without ruling out the possibility that they surprise and make an impact.