‘Madridlandia’, or the capital as a theme park | Madrid News

The Castro family—married couple and three children—enthusiastically walk down Gran Vía for the third time that day. From top to bottom again and again. From Plaza de España to Cibeles and start again, following the Christmas lights. The couple, born in Ecuador, and the children, in Torrejón, now snake along the right side, among a crowd that packed Spain’s main commercial avenue last week to see the Christmas lighting. When they get bored of the lights, the figure of a soccer player appears in the window of one store, a nougat tasting in another, or photos of a musical a little further on.

The Christmas lighting is another attraction in a theme park that squeezes the streets of the center like an udder that throughout the year does not rest for more than 20 days in a row. Until January 5, the day of the Three Kings parade, which mobilizes hundreds of actors, there will be almost six weeks of consumption and lights, which includes a bridge that will leave a hotel occupancy of 85% and attracts family trips, dinners company or bachelor parties from all over Spain. What until a few years ago was a stale Christmas starter ritual, has been taken over by the Abel Caballero effect and in addition to the Mayor of Vigo’s Wall Street-style sleight of hand on the switch, they now include the words of a guest star, a concert and fireworks.

After the Three Kings parade, the carnival week of February will arrive and some rejuvenated Holy Week processions will arrive, whose route has been modified so that they now go through Puerta del Sol. In May, the Community and San Isidro festivities They bring together proclamations and dozens of concerts for 20 days and in June, Gay Pride Day is now Pride Week. Almost ten days of events related to sexual diversity about which the City Council always reports with a press release headed by the millions of euros that the Pride waters over the city. Something similar happens with October 12, formerly Hispanic Day, now converted into Hispanic Heritage Week.

Year after year, the Madrid City Council invents a party or recycles a tradition so that the leisure and tourism machinery that contributes 12% of the GDP and has placed Madrid among the 10 cities in the world that derives the most economic benefit does not decline. according to Destination always de The Economist, a report sponsored by Booking that analyzes which cities in the world where tourism leaves the most money in relation to its environmental impact.

If there is no party or festival to invoke, Almeida invents one male Valencia, a drone show or Formula 1. Madrid dreams of full employment and if the City Council puts on the Christmas lighting to compete with the German nativity scenes, the hotels organize Illuminate Madrida tourist route through the facades of the main hotels and “promotes the capital as a dream Christmas destination.” The priorities of Almeida’s latest budget for Madrid are clear: a 3% increase in sports, 13% in culture and 18% in tourism.

“We come to the center twice for Christmas. The day of the lighting and on Epiphany for the parade. The children have a great time with the lights and so many people,” says Carlos, the father of the family, surrounded by happy people like them, who at that time go up and down Gran Vía. For the Castro family, any other excess that does not Whether it’s free: the ice rink, the Circus World or going to the cinema – popcorn and a green bus back – costs more than 100 euros. Something unthinkable for the pocket of a bricklayer with three children. The family arrived at the center at five in the afternoon and will return to Torrejón around ten at night. Walking down the street, entering Primark or entering the Telefónica building is the closest thing to spending a holiday. There are apples that last the Castros hours.

Madrid, which is committed to tourism and leisure as an engine of growth, also does not rest in summer, a time when the city was traditionally empty, but which is now breaking records. This year, 20% more tourists than last summer, according to official figures. But the tourist tsunami that attracts more than a million tourists to Madrid every month—1,500 foreigners every minute who spend almost 300 euros a day—goes beyond the summer, and October became the best month of the year, according to the INE . This time, foreign tourism won over national tourism and among those who came the most are Americans who have discovered that Spain is a good place to spend the winter, compared to a Mexico that scares the elderly.

Fernando Caballero, author of the book Madrid DFcall this partyingand warns about the risk that only three or four actors, accommodations, large chains or the city council’s coffers will benefit from the exploitation of leisure, and is committed to relocating a model that today is only found in the center. “The situation is complicated. Giving up tourism is too expensive a luxury. But you can die of success and a city transformed into an amusement park is not a healthy city or one with a future projection,” he explains. “As long as the city does not function in a polycentric way and we find a way to make it attractive to visit these new centers, the Center district will continue to be a consumer product. And to promote polycentrism, new areas are needed in the city that compete with the center,” he says by phone.

The switch with which Almeida turned on Christmas last week, is a summary of the model chosen by Madrid. In 2012, with Ana Botella as mayor, the Christmas budget was 30% lower than the previous year, the lights were turned on on December 4 and cost 60% less than in 2009. Manuela Carmena took the opportunity to raise money at the fight against cancer and other mayors boasted at some point of having used recyclable lights for Christmas lighting, but not made with bottles, but from the previous year. In Almeida’s Madrid, the strategy is the opposite. More spending, more shine and more sparkles every year. This Christmas, five million euros and 12% more money than last year.

The times when the main Christmas display was seeing the mayor inaugurating Cortylandia They are now a party with a stage, presenter, concert and the words of the national coach Luis de la Fuente. In the Madrid of the theme park, the leaves no longer fall in autumn, but rather the Halloween mask, the Santa Claus hat, the chulapo beret or the Fernando Alonso t-shirt, when spring arrives.