University New Year's Eve of sweets and perreo in Salamanca: "Don't take pictures of me, my mother catches me"

Some 20,000 people partying in 2022 prove that Miguel de Cervantes was right in 1575. “Salamanca, mother of sciences [...], inhabit ten or twelve thousand students, young people, whimsical, daring, free, fond, spenders, discreet, diabolical and humorous”, he wrote in

, as if he were describing the horde of kids who cross the access to the Plaza Mayor charra this Thursday night adorned by the fragment of his novel.

There the famous university New Year's Eve has been celebrated again after two years arrested by the pandemic.

Now there are some 30,000 university students studying in the city and thousands of them celebrate the end of the academic year with sweets like grapes and perreo and

as before the chimes while Salamanca assumes the impact of the celebration, which leaves dirt, noise and a lot, a lot of money.

The date has been marked months in the calendars.

The students enjoy a living milestone since some colleagues met there to improvise an early New Year's Eve in 1999, since each one came from a different place and could not celebrate the party together.

Year after year more followers gathered until the place was packed and now, this celebration of some friends attracts buses from half of Spain and Portugal.

A group of Portuguese students who came specifically for the event saw the stage being prepared, which would later show lights and sounds to thousands of people.

Salamanca University New Year's Eve, general appearance of the Plaza Mayor. Emilio Fraile

A guide tells them that this baroque marvel that surrounds them is made with stone from Villamayor and that until not so long ago there was a medallion in honor of Franco.

They observe and decide: "It's very cool."

The calm of the hours prior to the night party allow the people of Salamanca to walk around and show a general position favorable to the event, as stated by Paquita Gallego and Jesús Rodríguez, aged 80 and 85.

“Have you seen our university faces?” they exclaim, before thanking that the event “gives life” to Salamanca, where 7% of GDP is generated by the university.

This economic discourse is used by the hotel industry and the City Council, which include the citizen upset with the fuss and the businesses that benefit little from this tourism and that even close this date just in case.

bar

, Ramón Benito, illustrates this toll: "The university also causes kids to rent flats or professors to pay for 80-euro meals."

"It is what it is!" ditch.

The same is the opinion of Jorge Moro, president of the local hospitality association, which organizes New Year's Eve: "I respect the detractors, but the repercussion is important, it is a city of students."

The Councilor for Tourism, Fernando Castillo, calculates that the night leaves "a million euros" and that these "understandable complaints" must consider the "invaluable media impact" that brings visibility to Salamanca.

Debates about the relevance of this premature New Year's Eve matter little among the public.

Countless engineering, science, psychology or medicine students enter the Plaza Mayor with a cone of 12 candies distributed by the organization and accepting that they cannot introduce alcohol into covered containers.

Some cleverly hide half-liter bottles turned into hip flasks with

that doesn't smell like it no matter how much they swear with a smile.

The security personnel carry out

, that is, they search young people with full cachis that will soon animate the venue despite the threat of rain.

Those present, some with mustaches and acne at their first big university gala, wear everything from solemn suits to reindeer headbands or ties with epileptic lights.

The textile variety jumps to the musical.

Today anything goes, as Extremoduro, Bizarrap and Izal are linked.

Sonia Rodríguez and Maxi Seferova, aged 19 and 21, occupy the front row, attracted by the legend of the party, which brings together Erasmus from half the world, and Paula Damián, Lidia Navarro or Cristina Piñero, aged 18, from Zamora and Valladolid: "The first thing they told us about when they arrived in Salamanca was the party."

Others prefer not to give names because they already have a "fame as a party boy at work" and others hide from the camera: "My mother catches me!"

A girl standing on her shoulders, at the New Year's Eve party. Emilio Fraile

The two years without university New Year's Eve make many rookies debut this Thursday.

Daniel Ríos, Daniel Yágüez and Hugo Hernández, recently entered the age of majority, only hope that "there will be as many people as in photos from other years."

Soon 30 young people crowded into a nearby student apartment will attend, where they drink cups served in coffee cups, with slippers to walk around the house while they bellow the Christmas carol

.

One floor below, a girl explains that while she was buying alcohol, a cashier defended them "from a lady who was complaining about the noise."

The Plaza Mayor has not been filled to the delight of some veteran Erasmus who are rocking with Bad Bunny and Rosalía: Jim and Joanne, aged 66 and 68 with gray hair, have been learning Spanish in Salamanca since September and make their children envious: “We like the

”.

Midnight brings the end of the mambo, which moves to the gambling dens, after taking the 12 jelly beans.

The Red Cross is watching in case the scares with the drink have to be added to the scares with the sweets.

Everything is going well, it seems, and the condoms that used to fly inflated are now distributed in the outskirts, along with the purple dots.

The dozens of portable urinals relieve those who have been in the square for three hours and some recover energy with snacks that have saved more lives than penicillin.

The early morning progresses and the university students fill places like

, where they toast with a liter of

to enjoy this last student night and conspire to start 2023 “well bastard”.

Several participants in the New Year's Eve in advance of New Year's Eve. Emilio Fraile