A couple of arrests for sexist violence, thirty containers on fire, a few trash cans… No fatal stabbings, no mass fights, no businesses, no commercial showrooms ransacked by groups of uncontrollables… It’s because be satisfied So early in the morning the mayor Jaume Collboni said to himself “what the hell, come on, let’s go”, and he stood on the beach in jeans to recognize the fine arts of the municipal garbage collectors, who in a while they removed all the material traces of the Sant Joan revelry. From that, now, there are basically hangovers left.
And surely Mayor Collboni didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until then, until they detailed the incident report. Because the Sant Joan party became its first litmus test, the first test of a government that claims it intends to recover Barcelona’s public space, that wants to tidy up the city. And the truth is that the latest mass celebrations in Barcelona leave a trail of incidents largely attributable to the administrations. Do you remember those small bottles of chavals in the marquees of Plaça Espanya during Mercè? And those Saint John parties when the pandemic forced all kinds of parties to be banned? A few looted shops before last night would have had catastrophic consequences.
In any case, the insignificant balance of the shortest night of the year seems more a product of the civility of the people than of the corresponding municipal device. The point of popular festivals is to break the rules for a while and then realize their usefulness. And the Gothic lads threw a few cardboard bins into their improvised bonfires to jump over the flames. Sant Joan is one of the few festivals in Barcelona that still retains its idiosyncratic nature. And the shielding of Barceloneta so that its neighbors do not suffer the comings and goings of people did not start until four in the morning. In the meantime, everything happened there… Manel Martínez, from the neighborhood association, said that the initiative “could be improved in some areas, but it was also better than last year”. Other neighbors complained more bitterly. The approval of Sant Joan by the Executive of Collboni is just.
After all, tinners, bartenders and mojito sellers camped along the coast. The party was crowded, yes; the beaches brought together more than 80,000 people! And in view of these agglomerations, the police tend to measure their interventions in detail. But the fact that the street vendors of mojitos stand in the middle of the Paseo Marítimo with Ikea tablets or large cardboard boxes cut into bars illustrates the impunity with which they run wild. And mojitos are not cans, they are made in any way and pose a public health problem.
It was Albert Batlle, deputy mayor for Security, the same deputy mayor for the last four years who recently, at the presentation of the device, assured that they would pay special attention to the fight against street vending in all its forms , and he also remarked that Saint John marks the beginning of a summer that already promises to be very complicated. Well, on such a special night, some of the banished taxi drivers were even seen again. And the tinsmiths stood until dawn at the best crossroads in the Ciutat Vella district, one after the other. In Sant Joan you can sell a lot of cans for two euros. In fact, among the sellers of beer cans there were many that are not common. As it is, with so many people, these revues are an opportunity they cannot miss. Maybe the whole summer too…
