In May 2006, the City organized a conference at the San Telmo Museum to publicize the great cultural projects of San Sebastian. In it were presented the Victoria Eugenia Theatre, the San Telmo Museum and Tabakalera. The Victoria Eugenia Theatre was opened in March 2007. San Telmo will open next year, before the municipal elections. As for Tabakalera, we do not know when it will open. In

2008 Donostia-San Sebastian decided to apply for the European Capitality of Culture 2016. Harkaitz Cano, at the presentation ceremony, said, inter alia: “There’s a lot of talk about progress, but the advantages of doing it slowly. And the function of culture, perhaps, is next to it and not before it: it wouldn’t be bad if, from time to time, like the chess horse, it had the ability to move forward and to one side.” So

let's look at the sides. On the day that representatives of Donostia went to the Ministry of Culture to present the 2016 nomination, on 9 July 2010, it was known that the City Hall had sealed the DOKA sound equipment (Kafe Antzokia de Donostia). Apparently, on June 23, after 23:00 p.m., the music in the room was stronger than necesario.Enseguida I remembered the column The Sieged City of Diego

Manrique in the newspaper El País. Manrique referred to the aid granted by the City of Madrid to the theatres that programmed live music. Kafe Antzokia bilbaíno also had problems at the time. Illustrative of the journalist's words: “Many of us believe that music such as rock, jazz or jazz need small or medium sized rooms, spaces to enjoy with groups or soloists in a peaceful atmosphere, with the cup in hand, without any seats. Private initiative premises, which merit the understanding of the City Hall, and more (tax exemptions? ). They are part of the cultural fabric of any city and should be preserved, not persecuted. And there is persecution: for example, that brutality of the Municipal Police of Madrid, exploring the bags of DJs in search of pirated records!” In the 1980s, citizens did not have enough infrastructure to make known the artistic expression they liked, but when the will and the

need are put above resources, they are enough for you to get closer to doing whatever you want. Twenty years ago music had a significant weight in our free time (now in leisure time, at work, in cafes, in shops, full time), but, as Kaki Arkarazo said in a recent interview, there were four songs we repeated over and over again.

Donostia Kultura, with a budget of almost EUR 26 million in 2009, recalled Donostia-San Sebastián. For a city of about 180,000 inhabitants, it's not a very small number. Apart from the Festival, the Quincena Musical, various cultural events of the Kursaal, etc.En the period

2010-2011 will open another two houses of culture in Aiete e Intxaurrondo. Aiete will be specialized in human rights and a human rights institute will be based on it. Intxaurrondo, for its part, follows the path of the civic centers of Vitoria-Gasteiz. The sports club will be integrated. Without forgetting that the San Telmo Museum will reopen its doors in 2011.La

Donostia-San Sebastián 2016 candidacy has presented its project for the period 2009-2020. A budget of EUR 89 million, as we have read in the press. Of these, 40 million will be spent in the same period of 2016. It's a lot of money, yes, but if you look at other things, it's not that much. EUR 4.920 million has been provided for the development of the TAV, the metro and the bus station. The second road belt in Donostia-San Sebastián, for its part, has cost more than EUR 300 million.

The most gigantic cultural manifestations of San Sebastian (Aste Nagusia, Zinemaldia, Jazzaldia) were created to attract tourism in the second half of the twentieth century. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao was a project promoted by the economic departments of the institutions of the Basque Country. The worst thing is that money from the Culture departments is eaten. At the

end of September the U2 group will offer a concert at the Donostia-San Sebastian Anoeta Stadium. The institutions, the Provincial Council and the City Hall, are sure that they will provide some assistance to the promoter concert. Instead of emptying cultural budgets, it is better to include it in tourist attractions.

In the days of 2006, Josep Ramoneda said that democratic legitimacy is what should be put at the forefront of the hierarchy in terms of advertising management. I am interested in how the director of the Centre for Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB) understood this. He knew perfectly well that politicians had every right to dismiss him, but while he was in office they could not put their nose into his own. Ramoneda acknowledged that it had an advantage, as the Diputación is the largest employer and that this is outside the political tension of the day in Barcelona.

This is what has changed the most in recent years and, when Joxan Muñoz left Tabakalera, Xabier Erkizia summed up the situation perfectly in two sentences: “It’s amazing to see politicians as cultural managers. That’s how we work here.” It has

touched us to live the years of the Roma community, which are the major corporations of Disney, Guggenheim and many others. The lack of sufficient resources for all the world ' s inhabitants and frivolity is also one of the most serious areas. The lack of memory in these postmodern times is worse. It is normal in part, taking into account the information that happens before our eyes. Sometimes it seems that the crisis has come as the poet’s spring, without anyone knowing or realizing it. And that's not very normal. The authorities should be perfectly aware that the crisis has been our natural situation.

Let's end with other words from Harkaitz Cano in May 2008: “But what is that culture that often fills our mouths? The ability to see chaos more clearly? Is it just a pleasure that facilitates the path to pleasure and gives pleasure? A way to decode the code of our destination? Aesthetic beliefs? Maybe Roberto Bolaño was right and it's a floating culture. It’s not that little.”