Harp and pork

We have turned a barren plot of land into a theatre, a centre for leisure and culture; we have given the neighbourhood a space for socialising, a space which is free and well looked after; we have boosted collective work, so different from the neo-liberal and individualistic model we live in; and we have managed to bring culture for free to an outlying district which, in this aspect, was abandoned by public administration.

As it is a free festival, we have managed to give access to culture to people who don´t normally have such access: they can enjoy a classical concert, cry with an opera performance, older people give themselves over to the creativity of rappers or the power and energy of punk and rock, or the intimacy of poetry recitals or short story readings.

We self-fund ourselves by selling drinks, T-shirts, badges, mugs…; money which is used for the allotment and to improve the stage, the seats, the sound and lighting system. Those of us who lend a hand do it altruistically, and this reaches the artists who understand us and participate.

This was the case with Víctor Santal, known as the Royal Palace harpist. We persuaded him to come and perform. «In Manoteras?» —he asked in astonishment as if it were a hidden village in some exotic country. No one in the neighbourhood had seen a harp before and people were thrilled.

Víctor (and Marta Ponce) have come back for many years and together we coined a motto for our festival: Harp and pork. We think that listening to a concert, however elitist it might seem, is always more enjoyable when eating a sandwich and drinking a beer, which is very «street party». So, the harp and pork sandwich mixed the two concepts: we are a neighbourhood, and we offer art.