Three months of hell (infierno), nine months of winter (invierno), it is sometimes said in Spain, meaning the change between the summer heat and the rest of the year. And as midsummer is coming to an end these days, winter doesn’t seem to be coming fast enough for some people. The Galician coastal town of Vigo has just started installing its traditional Christmas lights in the streets – with the afternoon temperature still at 28 degrees.
Lavish lighting at Christmas time is not uncommon in Spain’s cities. But in the case of Vigo, the word “Christmas lights” doesn’t do it justice: the eccentric mayor Abel Caballero is once again transforming his city into a massive psychedelic galaxy. Eleven and a half million LEDs are set to illuminate the coastal town this year, a bombastic mix of light art and flashing kitsch.
Vigo’s mayor Abel Caballero is thrilled: “We have overtaken New York.”
(Photo: MIGUEL RIOPA/AFP)
The 2.2 million euro illumination is intended to attract tourists to Vigo more than the fish market or the cruise port. “The whole of Spain is waiting for it,” the 77-year-old Caballero said at a press conference this week. The early start of the installation is not unusual. Last year the matter was tackled in August.
In fact, Vigo has made itself known throughout Spain with bright megalomania. Sometimes the main attraction was a huge, walk-in gift box that shines in changing colors, sometimes a cone made of tens of thousands of LEDs towering over the houses. Even in the side streets, people aren’t content with just stylized snowflakes: there are meter-high snowmen standing around, and huge tail stars float over the roofs. Installing all of this takes time. No wonder Vigo’s citizens are already having to deal with road closures these days.
Starting in the outskirts of the city, the sea of lights will extend through 450 streets and culminate in the central Praza Porta do Sol in the form of a twelve-story-high tree of lights. “The biggest in the world,” enthuses Mayor Caballero, reports the online newspaper El confidencial.
Last year, Vigo’s Christmas Galaxy shone for almost two months, from mid-November to mid-January. Those among the 300,000 residents who found this a nuisance were accommodated a little: an hour less per day. When it will start this year is currently a secret; other places in Spain could switch on competing illumination, the city council fears.
“We have overtaken New York,” Caballero is convinced. Six million visitors enjoyed the festival of lights last year. However, not all residents of his city share the enthusiasm of the mayor, who was once Spain’s transport minister in the government of Felipe González. Several lawsuits are pending in court. Also because the funding is as high as the school budget for the entire year. At the same time as Caballero’s announcements, a protest by local public transport employees formed. Their motto was: Less lights, more buses.