The Vilanova i la Geltrú Carnival has started with controversy. An entity from the city has apologized for having broadcast a video comparing the Vida Festival with the Nazi regime.
It is a video from the Can Pistraus entity, organizer of El Tingladu, another festival held in the capital of Garraf. The clip was screened on Wednesday at the Golden Mask, a Carnival event where different entities compete to present the most original and satirical audiovisual.
The entity has simulated a promotional video for Vida and has used images of the Holocaust and films from Nazi Germany accompanied by a voice-over. In the video comparisons are made such as that of the festival director with Hitler, the festival space with a concentration camp or the ‘food trucks’ with crematorium ovens.
Attendees are also compared to victims of the Holocaust and the children’s space is defined as a space with Montessori games, while images of torture tools are shown.
Faced with this event, the Vilanova City Council and the ‘Amical de Buchenwald’ association denounce a lack of sensitivity and the trivialization of fascism. They have remembered that for Carnival, not everything goes. Opinions have been divided on the networks between those who believe that, indeed, it is a lack of ethics and those who defend freedom of expression and not censoring humor.
The entity ended up apologizing through an Instagram story, and attributed it to an error in staging and reaffirmed itself as an anti-fascist entity. They publish, via Instagram, that they will review the aspects that may have hurt the sensitivity of part of the public and will improve for the following events.