Today, Thursday May 15th, is apparently not only the Festival of San Isidro, the patron saint of Madrid, but also the 100th year of the Gran Via, one of the oldest streets in Madrid, obviously, and one main shopping streets as well (for those of you reading this that have been to Paris, it’s like the Champs Elysees). Before coming on this trip, I knew that the festival was going on, in fact, it was one of the main reasons for arriving early, but I thought it was going to be small random areas where they would play songs or something, but it was apparently a huge thing. They shut down the entire street and covered it with blue carpet, which was the idea of Y+R’s (a world renowned advertising agency) to promote one of the largest telephone companies in Spain called Movistar. When you think about it, it’s a really good idea, because whenever you look down on the street, you saw the logo and the blue color of the brand and its thanks to them that the entire street was shut down, which was a big deal.
Men, women, and children were dressed in the typical outfit from Madrid, in accordance with the festival of San Isidro, or any religious occasion, like the video above shows. All along the street were stages were different types of music were being preformed. One even had music from Abba. (picture 206).
After walking around the Gran Via for a while, I went to have my first real Spanish meal of the trip, vegetable paella and ham and cheese tapas with a glass of sangria, and let me tell you, it was the most amazing thing I have ever had! I loved it, and if you know me at all, you know I tend to be a bit of a picky eater.
The link below is a video on one of the events.
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