Barcelona will light up the Christmas lights from the city center and not from a neighborhood commercial hub, a common trend during Ada Colau’s time. The new government of Jaume Collboni has opted to locate the official start ceremony of the Christmas campaign in the Passeig de Gràcia. The date does remain: November 23, the eve of Black Friday 2023.
As knowledgeable sources have explained to EL PERIÓDICO, the premiere of Christmas in the capital returns to the modernist artery on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the road. The last time it starred in this event was in 2014, during the mandate of Xavier Trias: the lighting of all of Barcelona’s lighting was symbolically activated from the Jardinets de Gràcia to celebrate the improvement works carried out that year.
In 2022 the activity took place in the Plaza Mayor of Nou Barrisrebuking the decentralizing strategy prior to the pandemic, when the act had ‘visited’ Can Fabra (2019), the Guipúscoa rambla (2018), the Parallel (2016) or the Maragall walk (2015). The two campaigns marked by Covid-19, the event took place in the Born (2020) and Catalonian square (2021) and after the 2017 attacks it was carried out in the Rambla.
Christmas as an “icon”
Jordi Valls, deputy mayor of Economy and councilor of Eixample, confirms the decision: “The desire to decentralize Christmas activities will continue this year with the cultural programs in the districts, but the lighting ceremony returns to the center to celebrate the 200 years of the Paseo de “Gràcia.” “It is historically one of the emblematic streets of the city’s Christmas lighting,” he adds.
The council, says Valls, “considers Christmas lighting as an essential tool to enhance the commercial activity of the city during the holidays, with the lighting being the first major act of celebration of the entire Christmas cultural proposal.” Without revealing the content of this starting signal, he details that “it will give continuity to the model implemented two years ago & rdquor; by the PSC as a minority partner of the bipartite: “Christmas lighting wants to be a new icon of the city and it is designed thanks to the collaboration of the City Council with representative entities of commerce and design professionals.
Satisfaction on the ride
Luis Sanspresident of the merchants of Passeig de Gràcia and member of the central axes grouped in Barcelona Open, celebrates the news: “We are very happy, within the framework of the bicentennial it makes perfect sense that the start of the Christmas campaign takes place on Passeig de Gràcia.” “It is very good that this event is decentralized but from time to time it is also good that it is done in the center, on Passeig de Gràcia, it has not been our turn for a decade,” he points out.
Sans goes further and celebrates “the predisposition” that she observes in the Collboni government to organize “a beautiful Christmas & rdquor; and that “Senyor Hivern is already very far away,” in reference to the minimalist model promoted by the ‘Comuns’ in 2018. “The schedule of activities has not yet been made public but from what we hear, Barcelona is once again positioning itself as a city where celebrate Christmas, both for neighbors and visitors,” abounds.
The least touristic commercial hubs, grouped in the foundation Barcelona Commerce, do not oppose the municipal decision at all. “It doesn’t seem bad to us because it is the 200th anniversary of the walk and in recent years there has been an act of turning on lights in neighborhoods far from the center,” he said. Prosper Puig, president of the entity. “It has a reason, like when it was done on La Rambla due to the attacks or in Born due to the pandemic,” he adds.
Refusal to cut lighting hours
Puig assures EL PERIÓDICO that Jaume Collboni’s government proposed this summer to the two large merchant associations a reduction of Christmas lighting hours. He specifically suggested that they light up at 6pm, half an hour later. This would mean 22 hours less lighting for the entire campaign if it lasts the usual 44 days. “We have refused”, he reveals. “At 5:30 p.m. there is a lot of movement on the street due to the school exits and the LEDs barely use anything, while installing the lights does cost a lot of money,” she compares.
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Sans fully agrees: “In December before six it is already dark and people complain to us about poor lighting in Barcelona.” And he puts figures on the expense of the lights: the reduction in lighting hours requested by the council last year (from 259 to 217 hours) only lowered the electric bill for the walk by 227 euros. On the other hand, the lights themselves – with a recently renovated design – cost 180,000 euros per year.
No ‘Shopping Night’ in sight
The pandemic wiped out the Shopping Night that celebrated Passeig de Gràcia every December as a prelude to the festivities. Although, in fact, the regulatory rigidity I had already undermined it before. This 2023 will not return either and the merchants association does not anticipate recovering the event in the short term. “The ordinances restrict so much what sponsors and stores can do, such as playing music, selling on the street or setting up tents, that it is almost impossible to finance it,” laments Sans. Thus, she trusts that the municipal campaign itself will liven up the street during the shopping campaign: “We hope that the Christmas shows put on by the City Council throughout the city will also be seen along the promenade.”