On February 14, 2025, I was honoured to speak at the VII Trobada de Geografia Cultural, hosted by the Universitat de les Illes Balears under the vibrant theme “Anem de festa!” (“Let’s party!”). This annual gathering brings together researchers, students, and cultural practitioners to reflect on the spatial, symbolic, and social dimensions of festivity and popular culture.
My presentation, delivered during the morning session at the Ramon Llull Building, was titled “The Many Invisible Faces of the Nocturnal Tourist City.” In it, I focused on the layers of labor, social inequality, and urban transformation often obscured beneath the spectacle of nighttime cultural events and tourism.
Drawing from case studies in Portugal and Spain, I addressed how the night reveals a complex ecosystem of informal workers—such as cleaners, security staff, sex workers, and food vendors—who operate alongside and beyond the visible festive infrastructures. I also examined how nighttime tourism reconfigures space and time in urban life, producing both inclusionary rituals and new forms of marginalization.
The event provided a much-needed space to engage with fellow geographers and cultural researchers on the affective, embodied, and political dimensions of festive practices, and to explore how these intersect with broader questions around visibility, mobility, and social justice in contemporary cities.
I sincerely thank the organizing team at UIB for the invitation and the warm welcome. It was a true pleasure to contribute to this year’s meeting and to learn from such a diverse and inspiring group of scholars.
Manuel Garcia-Ruiz 