Collboni wants to get more out of Barcelona’s Christmas lights

Jaume Collboni wants to make Barcelona a Christmas city, a city whose name is associated with these holidays in the style of Vienna, Berlin or New York, a great metropolis where people come to buy their gifts, go out for dinner and see a musical. Hence, the mayor once again chose Passeig de Gràcia as the scene of the traditional Christmas lights switch-on held this Thursday. The truth is that at this time Barcelona is more of a destination for party favors, for end-of-year revelry. Once again we are witnessing the debate about what the hell the supposed quality visitor is and whether it suits us or not.

Five stages scattered along the promenade, around thirty dancers here and there, a great spectacle of light, color and super urban music, a production by the Barcelona Institute of Culture (ICUB) signed by Aktionstheater Pan.Optikum, a very renowned company. … It was planned that Collboni himself and two teenagers of Chinese and Equatoguinean origins would press the red button, but at the last moment the mayor preferred to give the spotlight to the kids and emphasize thus an anti-racist message in favor of coexistence. And immediately people taking a ton of selfies with the lights and the newly plugged-in hanging butterflies from the promenade behind their backs.

Taking selfies by standing on the asphalt of the promenade is on its way to becoming a Barcelona Christmas tradition. Let’s cross our fingers, because last year a lot of unwary people unleashed concerts of horns and horns. This was supposed to be the last year for these hanging butterflies, but the merchants of the axis are so satisfied with so much popular acceptance that they are already thinking about adding new ornaments next year and not so much about replacing them. This Thursday people crowded the promenade, so much so that many could barely catch a glimpse of the spectacle. And then you had to be patient enough to leave without pushing. On top of that, the traffic in much of Eixample became very unfriendly.

The mayor was scheduled to press the red button, but in the end he gave the spotlight to two young people

In reality, all this is what Mayor Collboni is looking for, for Barcelona to have symbols of international reach that associate it with these festivities. Like the lighting of the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center in New York. The thing is that these bets require a lot of time. Hence also why the mayor has dispensed with the always controversial Christmas display in Plaça Sant Jaume this year and planted a gigantic star there. In reality, one of the most deeply-rooted Christmas traditions of the people of Barcelona is to criticize the manger that does not look like a manger and then immediately criticize the political class and their ways of spending public money. The socialists prefer that Barcelona residents and visitors post very smiling photos of themselves on the networks. The re-election of Passeig de Gràcia for this ceremony has nothing to do with the bicentennial of the city’s most stately axis. The repetition of this scenario is not the result of the pressures of the merchants on this side of Barcelona but rather of the plans of the socialist executive.

What happens is that here the debates around these issues are so tense that the municipal government prefers to maneuver without making a big deal about it. The repetition of the walk has already sparked criticism from the councilors of BComú and ERC, who came to call the initiative elitist, and also from the merchants of the proximity axes, from the Barcelona Comerç foundation, who demand that this ceremony return to the neighborhoods, which is once again itinerant, which again also serves to promote the closest merchants. Yesterday, as a protest, no representative of these entities attended the lighting of the lights.

Luis Sans, from the Passeig de Gràcia Association, wanted to address the controversies and make it clear that the merchants on the promenade do not intend to appropriate this event. “What we have been demanding for a long time is that the lighting ceremony be a great central and central city event, that brings together Barcelonans from all the neighborhoods and that projects all of Barcelona. We understand that this is beneficial for everyone.” This is truly a very old claim for the most visited commercial hubs in the city.

No representative of the neighborhood merchants attended the meeting as a protest

Sans is also happy that this year the lights will be on for more hours than ever. In addition, Barcelona will add more than 110 kilometers of illuminated roads these holidays. The ornaments will reach the last neighborhood of the city, Torre Baró, which today will inaugurate a shed set up by the residents themselves that pays tribute to their combative spirit. Furthermore, among the few new features this year, the City Council installed 25 luminous figures more than two meters high in all the city’s districts, and will also illuminate 14 unique buildings and the most historic businesses in the Raval and Gòtic neighborhoods. and Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i la Ribera. This way they won’t be able to call him a centralist.