One of the most emblematic and participatory events of the Solsona carnival is the hanging of the donkey in the Torre de las Horas on Saturday night. In order to comply with the regulations of the drought plan, it has been decided that the donkey will perform a symbolic urination on the public with treated groundwater and not from the network.
The president of the Association of Carnival Parties, Àlex Vilanova, has also asked the neighbors not to throw buckets of water at the public, a common action during the celebration of the party.
Although the events will start on Thursday, these days the children of Solsona are already visiting the Carnival giants. "Children don't walk and as soon as they are born they already play a video of the giants," explains Vilanova.
The hanging of the donkey, which will turn 40 next year, is one of the most participated and popular events of the Solsona carnival. It was established in 1985 when, according to what is said in Solsona, a donkey climbed the bell tower to eat some herbs that had grown.
They carried the animal up with a rope tied around its neck, since the stairs were too narrow and, therefore, the animal urinated while it was dying. Every year this legend is revived on Carnival Saturday with the hanging of the donkey, on Children's Carnival Monday and also on Ash Wednesday with the hanging of the animal.
In order not to tarnish one of the most attended events of the festival, but at the same time comply with drought restrictions, the City Council has decided that the water used for this event be phreatic and not from the network. The water will be taken from a well that is used to clean the streets. A tank will be installed under the tower where the donkey is hung and the water will be pumped to make it rise the 18 meters necessary to use it through the mechanism that the cardboard donkey has built into it.
Solsona will officially start the Carnival events this Lardero Thursday with the arrival of the Carnival King.
The president of the Carnival Festival Association has explained that this year the festival comes with few new features, since it is a "very rich carnival, with more than seventy events." An activity that had stopped being carried out is recovered, the deaf call through the old town. It is a tour in which the musicians of the orchestra and the public are constantly out of tune.
The weeks before the festival, the municipality's schoolchildren visit the Carnival Giants, which are on display in the Solsona multipurpose room. Until this Wednesday, more than 350 children will get to know these figures and the most folkloric aspect of the festival up close.
