The Zaragoza City Council will install a giant screen on the esplanade of the Estación del Norte to be able to follow the next Fiestas del Pilar proclamation from there, as announced this Saturday by the municipal councilor for Culture, Sara Fernández, during her visit to the Goyescas Festivities.
The measure aims to alleviate and diversify in different areas of the city the large influx of people that the Plaza del Pilar registers every year during this first and crowded event of the festivities in the capital of Aragon. It adheres to the plan for managing large crowds presented by Firefighters and Civil Protection at the meeting of the Local Security Board held this Friday.
In this study, as explained by the municipal councilor, data on attendance recorded since the installation of security cameras for people counting in 2019 have been taken into account. This has allowed the establishment of different occupancy levels of the square to close access points and distribute personnel to other spaces.
Fernández emphasized the «commitment» and «joint efforts» of the City Council, the Government Delegation, and the Security Forces to implement new measures year after year with the aim of increasing safety. «When one Pilar ends, we start working on the next one,» she recalled about a plan that places the hours of the Proclamation as one of the most challenging moments of the Festivities, which will take place this year from October 4 to 13.
In this line, Sara Fernández pointed out that the city has «large programming spaces» for the Fiestas del Pilar beyond the square, such as Espacio Zity, food trucks, and the Estación del Norte itself, with a specific program.
The choice of this new venue on the other side of the Ebro River comes after the placement of a screen in Plaza Salamero, an option that Fernández acknowledged did not attract as many people as expected «because there was no programming there.»
«At the Estación del Norte, it will be very convenient to watch the proclamation and stay for the next concert,» she described in the council’s effort to «decentralize» the festivities, «to have activities in many different spaces so that everyone can also enjoy them more comfortably and, of course, safely,» she emphasized.
Furthermore, in response to questions from the media, Sara Fernández stated that the City Council does not currently consider a second tent, in addition to Espacio Zity, for the peñas (traditional groups) and instead mentioned negotiating a space for regional houses as a pending issue.
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