Verbenas The bars of the bars return to the streets during the August festivities in Madrid
Here there is a beach (III) This is the program of the August festivals in Madrid: San Cayetano, San Lorenzo and La Paloma
Cascorro square vibrates.
In the heart of the city, a continuous stream of people of all kinds runs through the area, up and down the street.
They feel like partying, and they've come to the right place.
Manolo González, president of the Nuevo Rastro merchants association, knows this.
He glass in hand, and with a smile from ear to ear, he warns: "Here begins the move."
And it is that three years later the
San Cayetano festivities are back.
The real ones, because last year there was only a small proclamation, but there were no stalls or street food.
And the only drinks were bottles of mineral water.
But this year will not be the same.
«It is to return to total normality and recover the neighborhood as a confluence center for neighbors, visitors and merchants.
It is a symbiosis.
We are recovering joy
», affirms González.
The song "Happy", by Pharrell Williams, mixes with paso dobles and chotis forming an
explosive cocktail
.
Some try to win prizes in booths, sharpening their aim with shotguns.
Others taste cotton candy that impregnates the environment with its characteristic smell.
Hotdogs, hamburgers and fries must number in the thousands.
In the center of everything, a few optimists try to score a goal against a cardboard Iker Casillas that makes it quite difficult.
There are parades, contests, treasure hunts and musical performances.
Of all kinds and for all audiences.
In the midst of the chaos, a small café resists like Asterix's village against the Romans.
Its owner, Sandra Almeida,
does not offer alcohol, but coffees and cakes.
«I want to be different.
Not everything has to be beer and steak », she defends as she points out some customers who, oblivious to the hustle and bustle outside, work with laptops and chat relaxedly.
But these parties are not for everyone.
Saturnino Vera, from the Cavas neighborhood association, explains that:
"They stopped meaning what they were when the bars took over them."
He affirms that 20 years ago they were used to gather the neighbors and talk relaxed while eating a potato omelette.
But there is nothing left of that.
“We want the neighborhood to remain ours, not to be taken away from us,”
he laments.
PREPARATIONS AGAINST CHEMICAL SUBMISSION
Sandra walks through the streets wearing a badge on her chest that reads "Madrid free of sexual violence."
About chemical submission, so talked about these days and so related to parties, she says:
«It doesn't scare me in itself, but it's one more concern for women»
.
"It's what we needed, we already have enough," says her friend Irene, who adds: "We have to take the right measures."
"The issue of chemical submission worries us," explains José Fernández, councilor for the districts of Centro and Salamanca.
“But
we have 120 members of the Municipal Police, plus some from the National Police.
You have to be calm, the security forces are on it », he clarifies.
«Madrid is very festival. They have a lot to do with the street”
, affirms Manolo Sánchez.
"Here we all integrate," adds María Fernández, from the neighborhood association El Rastro.
The neighborhood is life, and the San Cayetano festivities, the extension of this unique way of being and enjoying, are back.
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