June 8, Ocean Day. Also, and not by chance, the date on which the twelfth edition of the Mar de Mares festival will already be on its third day and full performance. It is the annual appointment of A Coruña with the sea, the seas, the oceans.
It opened its doors on the 6th and until June 15 everything that gives the sea for science, art, music, culture, fishing, sports, tourism, gastronomy, identity, awareness, activism will be present at the festival. Or, in another way and as expressed on the festival’s website, “everything that fits in the ocean will be there.”
Organized by the SAL Networks Association, the festival is conceived from the first edition as a “celebration of the oceans, so that we are aware of how much they give us. Starting, of course, so we know all, the food, the beach, the leisure, – explains the artistic director of Sea of Mares, Silvia Oviaño-. But, in addition, we have to be aware that the first thing that the first thing is. 70% between 50 and 70 of the oxygen we breathe comes from the oceans, gives us transportation, gives us knowledge, exchange of cultures. It is a celebration and preservation festival. ”
The look of the one who comes from outside had a lot to do at the birth of the festival. “I was traveling a lot to A Coruña for my work as a cultural manager,” said Oviaño. ” Obviously, they are very aware that “we have not discovered the sea to the Coruña, much less. But we do believe they have contributed to the pride of that special link that has Coruña with the sea.”
Hence, the more than 30 activities that take place in the 10 days of the festival are so varied, so that “everyone, you are older, young or child, you are interested Definitive, -Resume Silvia Oviaño-, so that anyone can find something you like or attract in programming.
And, just as the activities are diverse, also the scenarios where they are celebrated are many and are distributed among the most expressive and imaginative points of the city. From the beach to the market of San Agustín, La Domus, the Cinema Avenida, the public libraries, the Paseo Marítimo, the Dársena de la Marina or the surroundings of the Torre de Hercules.
Underwater and shore activism
And, although Oviaño in principle responds “is like saying what son you want the most” to the question of what I would highlight of the entire program, in the end there is an appointment that for her “the most special of all, at least for me, is the ‘cleaning of the seabed’ of the coast of the city”, which will take place last Sunday in the port.
The arguments cannot be more powerful: “It is usually what the festival closes, in which we have spent 10 days speaking and speaking, that if the sea here, that if the sea over there.
So, with cleaning we go to action, it is when we can do something very tangible and visible. ”
In a city that was born in a peninsula and that has the longest promenade in Europe, the response of the citizenship called to get garbage from the sea exceeds the expectations of the organizers. “We summon volunteers and more than 100 Red Cross, Maritime Rescue, Police and the Army come. And much fans of submarineism clubs that are notified to each other and come on their own.”
On the ground, many many volunteers take out what the submarines rise to the surface “imagine what comes out of there: very old networks, made dust and very heavy, supermarket cars, a toilet, headphones, bottles I know!, Anything that can occur to us!”.
The cleaning “is for us the feeling, the spirit of the festival. All citizens participate and even more: of all our sponsors, whether public administrations and companies, teams come to participate. They put on their shirt and there you see the general director of Abancamar taking garbage and pulling the strings next to the director of Vegalsa or a man who passed by and that he wanted to point out.”
All that “generates an incredible good vault among everyone and that they are curing a lot. It is a pitch, that every year we take three or four tons! But they are all very happy and proud of it, because it is to show that among all we can do something. And little that you can always leave all this better. That is why it is so special for us. A high.”
“The tires that leave there!”
At the end of the day, everything extracted meets and exposes itself to the view of the whole world, so that people see the amount of garbage extracted from the sea, in a single day and in a single specific area. Apart from the networks, which can have its logic, the garbage that the divers take out, it has already been seen, it is the most disparate, even surprising. Even so, he calls Oviaño attracts his attention “that of tires that leave there,” he exclaims.
Perhaps because of their experience they know that this happens and, among all the entities, -administrations, foundations and public and private entities -that support the sea of seas with sponsorships and collaborations, it was Signus (which collaborates with the festival from the beginning) that promoted the cleaning of seabed and was involved in its implementation.
Isabel Rivadulla, Director of Communication of Signus, points out that “every year, the tires are present in the cleaning and hopefully one day we get any that there is no one. Therefore, our motivation to promote this initiative for cleaning marine funds in the framework of the Mar de Mares Festival is a clear example of the commitment we have to ensure that all the tires were guaranteed an adequate environmental treatment.” An activity that is “an awareness action, so that we are aware of all the waste that ends up dirtying and contaminating our seas.”