The Naval Battle of Vallecas is a 30 years old water-fight tradition, where locals and occasional visitors engage into a most refreshing brawl to honor the local patron Saint Virgen del Carmen in Madrid's southern district of Vallecas.
This year the celebration acquired an additional significance, meant to be a sign of discontent against the social cuts and heavy blows to the Spanish welfare state the government had no choice but to adopt pressured by the European Union's...
more »The Naval Battle of Vallecas is a 30 years old water-fight tradition, where locals and occasional visitors engage into a most refreshing brawl to honor the local patron Saint Virgen del Carmen in Madrid's southern district of Vallecas.
This year the celebration acquired an additional significance, meant to be a sign of discontent against the social cuts and heavy blows to the Spanish welfare state the government had no choice but to adopt pressured by the European Union's demands to reduce deficit.
The battle started at 5pm last Sunday, 18th of July at Madrid's Calle Peña Gorbea - The Boulevard, where several floats designed to look like marine vessels marched towards the old square of Puerto Rubio surrounded by hundreds of almost naked 'vallecans' armed with Super Soaker Water-blasters, pumps, buckets of water, plastic basins and portable power washers, all useless when cheeky neighbors started watering the crowd with hoses from the security of their balconies.
For this particular "war" 64,000 liters of water were purchased by the District Council, hardly equivalent to less than 5% of water used by golf courses in Madrid. All this water was delivered in 3 container trucks, providing ammunition for those many cheering and giggling as they splashed themselves and others surrounding them with water.
Only few bold photographers dared to risk their equipment and pride joining the cheerful crowd involved in an intensive and delightful combat. Not willing to take my Nikon D3, I opted for its smaller sister D700 with Kata's plastic rain cover purchased a year ago for my cancelled trip to Buñol, Valencia where instead of water people throw tomatoes at each other.
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