The Three Wise Men attract crowds on Bilbao’s Gran Vía
Thousands of children and adults celebrate the return of the parade after the two editions suspended due to the pandemic
Anyone would say that, with the two blank years of the pandemic, the audience for the parade in Bilbao has tripled: the Gran Vía has been packed with a crowd eager for magic, gifts and sweets, which are three things that are thrown a lot except when they are missing. There were stretches of street where there was just enough space for the parade to pass, so close to the front row that some rascally kids threatened to steal from the Kings the fake packages they carried on the floats. And the royal postmen, despite walking on stilts and being equipped with a kind of butterfly net, barely managed to pick up the missives from those further back, far away, on the sidewalk. A similar frenzy has been experienced in the other cavalcades in the territory.
The Three Kings parade is a curious mix of magic and technology, that is clear: to the prodigious powers of their majesties are added machines such as the highly sophisticated switchboard of the Royal Post Office Xpress, with its state-of-the-art screens, or the long-awaited Karamelomatic 3,000 , which closes the parade with its three tons of gluten-free candies. Magic never fails – don’t worry, children – but technology is another story: those in charge of leading the procession were the old American LaFrance fire truck and a brand-new electric car from the Municipal Police, and guess which of them has broken down in the time to boot. Correct! The car was left there, in the center of the road, splitting the ride in two like a boulder in the middle of the river, while the American LaFrance moved forward light as a youngster, and even seemed to laugh a little at the siren.
The parade always goes from less to more. Or rather, it begins with a more orderly air, a formal and elegant spectacle, and ends up unruly in a kind of feverish chaos. The postmen pass by, the rock band with its biodegradable confetti cannon, the inflatable horses, the batucada, the butterflies on stilts, the acrobats, the gigantic inflatable frog that seems about to eat a leprechaun… And the children listen with controlled illusion: they are a bit unpredictable, capable of getting excited in front of some guys dressed as penguins or starting to collect colors of confetti just when the tightrope walker passes by. But magic, as we have already said, is working, and one of its effects is to turn some people into unusual beings. Miguel, for example, is dancing on a kind of wagon, dressed as a giraffe, but in other editions he has been the snowman Olaf or a diver from ‘20,000 Leagues Under the Sea’.
– And how does Mr. Giraffe feel there?
– This is a wonderful thing. See the children’s faces… When I went to Olaf, some of them cried with emotion.
– Today, as a giraffe, they will not cry.
– Today… what would they be!
But the time comes and then one realizes that the children were holding back, they worked not to wear out their nervous system (and neither did their vocal cords, oh, so powerful) in the face of the final apotheosis. The Kings arrive and everyone shouts “the Kings, the Kings”!«. When asking a group which is their favourite, a few ‘baltasares’ are heard, some ‘melchores’ and, always the same, only one Gaspar, Elaia’s, who wears one arm in a sling and holds the sandwich with the other. snack. Poor Gaspar, always a little neglected.
– So, is Gaspar the one you like the most?
– Well, I saw him in ‘Kings against Santa’ and I felt sorry for him.
– Wow… and what did you ask?
– The Chicago Bulls kit.
– Do you play basket?
– That’s how I broke my arm.
Every king has his style. The venerable Melchor, there at the top of his European stone castle, is the most relaxed, waving with two hands from his chair, with the elegance of an imposing palatial portrait. Gaspar stands on his Asian sand float: he blows two-handed kisses, runs his fingers through the children who are present, and even goes downstairs to check some faces up close. And Baltasar… In short, Baltasar has come very rejuvenated this year and has become the revelation of the evening, based on dancing and exalting the crowds: he toured its construction in an African way, lowering his hands, raising them all of a sudden with their palms up and everyone was screaming. If Baltasar, before and now, has always been special in Bilbao!
At this point, the human mass is already quite excited, but right after the moment arrives when magic and technology join forces to unleash madness, something like the final triumph of anarchy against the monarchy. The fourth king, Karamelomatic 3,000, starts shooting candies and everyone gets out of control, children and adults: this time there were almost no upside-down umbrellas, those fantastic candy collectors, but some were equipped with large grocery bags. Anyone would say that they have not eaten candy in these two years of pandemic!