We will have a University!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure and satisfaction of signing an agreement with Mark Lethem, the President of the Higher Studies Centre for the Performing Arts. We are dealing here with excellent news, which on the one hand, act as support for our world presence and the possibilities of our town, despite the growing financial difficulties, and on the other, help to consolidate a project in which the City Government has been working hard and with the necessary discretion.

The arrival of the Higher Studies Centre for the Performing Arts is the result of a firm and strategic commitment to provide the town with a Higher Learning Centre. The school will be installed in the Sitges Design Centre and will provide university studies covering performance, dance, musical theater, pop music, scenery, creation and management of art companies and film production. The Norwich University of the Arts will certify studies.

It is the first center of its kind to open in continental Europe, that is, outside the UK, the country of origin of the school. In a few months, the classes corresponding to the year 2013-14 will commence, and the first students will arrive.

With the establishment of this center, Sitges recuperates its status as college town. This is not the first time that Sitges hosts college studies, but this is a project conceived for medium and long term. In the mid nineties, Sitges hosted a Hotel School, until it merged with the CETT, which forced the school to leave the town. Sitges also hosted a Summer College in the eighties, with the help of Universidad Menéndez y Pelayo, and during the late nineties, the town also hosted film studies performed in conjunction with ESCAC.

Many municipalities are eager to earn the title of "College Town". It is a condition that brings prestige. We are obviously pleased for the fact that the new university will contribute to strengthen the institutional prestige of Sitges. 

However, the main yearning that led us to work to attract this initiative was socioeconomic and cultural. The opening of this university will boost private investments and initiatives capable of generating economic movement, and will also create new opportunities for large segments of the population and reinforce the role of Sitges as a cultural platform.

This is excellent news, which confirms that work can pay off if done with diligence and proper forms. This project was the result of a task that we started just at the beginning of our government in 2011. And during all this time, we did not want to announce or publicize all the negotiations and business rounds, because we hate to announce a pie in the sky. It was not the moment to announce anything that was decided yet, a common procedure of the previous municipal government that never closed any agreement with the investors they contacted. Our line of work was just the opposite: to work discretely and with accuracy and make announcements only when agreements are closed.

Today, we can be satisfied with the signature of the agreement with the Institute of the Arts Barcelona, all the work done will guarantee that Sitges will have an International University specialized in Performing Arts.

Many visions for a Carnival for everybody

Today, Thursday Gras marks the beginning one of the most intense weeks of our calendar. The Carnival mobilizes thousands of local residents immersed in a festivity that has many faces. The parades, l'Arribo, xatonades, dances at the social clubs or acts recently introduced (or recovered), and the Race of costumed beds, make the Carnival a festivity capable of admitting many interpretations and visions.

And this is one of the main treasures of our Carnival. For some residents of Sitges, the Carnival revolves around the parades in which they have labored diligently with their groups, others spent months in anxious anticipation designing the final appearance of the Carnival King and Queen; others have been excited during the last few days for the upcoming xatonadas of Thursday Gras, and others will live the Carnival experience as mere spectators in a middle ground between complicity and pungency. The plurality of such profiles makes our Carnival a very rich festivity packed with different nuances, solid principles and with a dynamic expression. It is no accident that the website of the daily La Vanguardia placed the Carnival of Sitges among the 10 in the world.

The Carnival of 2013 is here to confirm the good measures implemented last year at parades. A year ago, many questioned the need to advance the schedule of parades. A year later, this measure has been accepted as good and necessary by the different sectors involved in the festivity: groups, social clubs, law enforcement, organization and public. Thanks to the new schedule, today our Carnival is a carnival for everyone. This was well understood by the Department of Home Affairs of the Generalitat, headed by Minister Espadaler, which has renovated a full support in the deployment of the Mossos d'Esquadra, a totally essential requirement.

However, experiences always bring results, reviews and suggestions. This year, accepting the opinion of most social clubs and groups, the parades will return to Cap de la Vila once they have made the whole journey, and such a feat will mark the end of the journey. A successful organization will make it possible and the desire of people make it advisable.

I would emphasize the role-quiet and discreet, of many people that work intensively so the Carnival of Sitges enjoys a good reputation, presence and category. The "carrossaires", gang bosses, social club commissions, Carnival Commission, security and protection, the owners and employees of businesses that offer a high quality image and service, the, sponsors ... without them none of this would be possible. 

Thank you all for placing our Carnival among the 10 best in the world. Enjoy it with respect for everyone.