Between panties, bras and flannel sheets, several women from the Granada municipality of La Peza (1,120 inhabitants) looked askance at the market offers early this Wednesday.
They had already bought vegetables for the stew and were talking about the only topic that is being talked about these days in the region: the
rave
that has been held on the outskirts of town since December 30.
“Of course we have been there.
And our daughters, who have gone drinking to spend the nights”, said Rosa, 45 years old.
"And how those
hippies like music
”, answered Elena, 30 years old, loaded with leeks and carrots.
"We have asked them to come again next year, that we are going with them to spend New Year's Eve," they emphasized laughing almost in unison.
"I hope they come back soon", they repeated through the humid streets of the town while saying goodbye to some attendees who were eating in the town before leaving an unauthorized party that ended at mid-morning.
The mayor, Fernando Álvarez (PP), jokingly assured that he was thinking of hiring them for municipal festivities, and this Wednesday he has indicated that he will wait until tomorrow to assess what to do with the waste on the place.
The residents of La Peza have lived a short and intense love affair with the participants of the long-lasting illegal party.
The relationship did not start off in the best way.
Many residents grimaced when, out of nowhere, last Friday some 200 vehicles collapsed on the access road to the town.
Two hundred vans, motorhomes and small trucks wound down a winding dirt track bound for municipal land surrounded by pine trees and views of the snow-capped peaks of the Sierra Nevada.
In the blink of an eye they had thrown a
rave
.
The first impression struck the inhabitants of the area: they did not know their visitors and saw that on television they only talked about problems and drugs.
“I went with some fear, but then I realized that everyone was greeting you, inviting you to come in.
Nobody messed with anyone.
They just wanted to have fun”, assured the women at the market.
“The only problem is the Civil Guard controls and the road block.
They are forcing me to take other paths and I am late to deliver the bread”, complains José, a local baker who delivers his merchandise in a small van.
At noon this Wednesday, a group of neighbors were savoring the tapa that accompanied the beer in the Fernando bar when Canal Sur, the Andalusian public television, dedicated several minutes in its newscast to the illegal party in La Peza.
"Look, there we are again," Pepa Rodríguez, 45, said from the other side of the bar.
On the screen was a sign that said that the neighbors were "desperate" because of the
rave
and that this had affected 20 hectares of barley.
The parishioners exploded.
"If what we want is for them to stay!" they commented.
"And the barley never comes out!" They explained, attributing that it did not catch the usual cold in the area.
"Television misrepresents a lot what happens here," said Verónica Sánchez, 28, who has come several times with her friends to have a few beers and dance at the party.
At a time when subscriptions to major festivals far exceed 100 euros, they wanted to take advantage of an event that was “so cool, accessible and close”.
Walkers, cyclists and entire families have visited the space where the
rave
was held with curiosity.
Their conclusions were virtually identical.
“They have been very careful with the site.
I want to go again this afternoon, to see if there is still some partying left”, said Antonio Castro, manager of a supermarket in the municipality.
“You had to go see it, without a doubt.
Who knows when they will return ”, added José Arroyo, 49, while he filled bottles of water at the town fountain.
Images of grandmothers with their grandchildren walking among the groups of young people dancing have gone viral on social networks, as if they had entered a chapter of
Self -Defense
, the series starring Berta Prieto and Belén Barenys.
On Tuesday night, gentlemen with berets on their heads and staffs in their hands opened their eyes to the only two stages that were still active at the time, which had a screen and projections on a tree.
“Everything is very well organized.
They are much cleaner than us, who leave everything worse at the municipal festivities”, added Rosa from the market.
Not even music, just a rumor from the urban area, has been a problem.
"An old refrigerator makes more noise," added another woman who, yes, said that on her walk through the camp she had seen "many drugs."
"But there each one with his body," she finished.
Three kilometers from the town, the music finally stopped around 11 in the morning this Wednesday, after a quieter night than the previous ones.
With silence, hundreds of young people loaded with refrigerators, mattresses and backpacks walked along the dirt track to evacuate the camp.
They changed the fleeces to overcome the night cold for bikinis for the daytime heat.
Others moved in a caravan of vehicles slowed down by the intensive controls of the Civil Guard.
Agents from the Traffic Group carried out inspections, checked the documentation and carried out breathalyzer and drug tests.
Strictly restricted access to the town was maintained throughout Wednesday with the aim of limiting access to people, food and fuel.
"You have to go and rest"
Most of the assistants, already tired, accepted it.
"It's a pity, but you have to go and rest," stressed Andreu, a Catalan from Barcelona whose jaw seemed to have a life of its own in the early afternoon.
At those times, several girls were busy cleaning the grounds.
They piled dozens of garbage bags in two piles inside the compound.
The intention of the organization was to stack them in a vat to take them to a clean point, but although they paid a company to bring a container, the Civil Guard did not allow the truck access until the party.
“They are boycotting us, when what we want is to pick up everything and be able to leave,” added Marco, a thirty-year-old participant in an event that has ended with four people arrested —two of them, in the last few hours, for drug trafficking— and a young man transferred to the hospital unconscious due to alcohol consumption last Monday, who was discharged hours later.
"For the movement that the party has had, these are minimal figures, nothing serious," concluded sources from the armed institute, with much more desire for the
rave
to be just a memory than the residents of La Peza themselves, who have experienced a fleeting love with temporary visitors who have given life to the town.
And to those who already miss the way you miss a youthful summer love when classes start.
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