Despite the mobility restrictions in the Community of Madrid and its localities, due to the application of the measures of the current state of alarm, the City Council of the capital does not renounce to provide its streets with the typical Christmas atmosphere and will even expand decorative lighting at 30 new locations.
The new locations for the Christmas lights will be the section of Calle Alcalá between Seville and Sol, the Prado-Recoletos axis, the Sanchinarro and Las Tablas developments or the surroundings of the already dismantled Joaquín Costa bridge.
According to the information from the Works and Equipment area of the Madrid City Council, the lighting, entirely made up of ‘led’ bulbs, began to be installed at the beginning of September and has a budget of 3.17 million euros, practically identical to that of the year past (3.08 million)
Other new locations are the Duque de Medinaceli-Jesús axis; the Usera market; the Elíptica, the Salesas, the Encuentro, Cuzco, Manuel Becerra and Oporto squares; the Juan Bravo and Raimundo Fernández Villaverde bridges; the walk of La Florida; the Fernán Gómez Cultural Center; or the vicinity of the Hospital 12 de Octubre.
At the confluence of Alcalá and Gran Vía streets, the great luminous ball of ‘video mapping’ will be maintained, for which a new visual show will be developed, which will be played continuously instead of with passes at specific times.
The Christmas lighting project will once again feature proposals from architects, designers and specialists in this type of installation, such as Ben Busche, Teresa Sapey or Sergio Sebastián.
In addition, as a novelty, this year proposals from fashion designers will be incorporated thanks to the agreement signed between the City Council and the Association of Fashion Creators of Spain (ACME), with designs by Devota & Lomba, Juan Duyos and Andrés Sardá.
The City Council had the intention of increasing the budget for Christmas lighting, which it considers “an important contribution to the tourist and commercial boost of the city”, but the health crisis of the coronavirus “has disrupted plans and priorities.”
“This year more than ever, the people of Madrid deserve that the capital shine in a Christmas that will be very different from the ones we have known so far,” they conclude from the Consistory.
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