The month of April ended, and with it the best and largest free tourist advertising campaign of recent times is left behind. Barcelona has had the trip of Obama and Spielberg to see Springsteen, but Seville has devastated his Fair. TikTok (and to a lesser extent, Instagram), has gone crazy: the hashtag
Either I am very wrong or the tendency has not been deliberate. Why do we talk about the Fair now when it is older than the black thread? I guess that's precisely how fashions work, and that something doesn't wear until it starts to wear.
I enjoy spontaneous phenomena as much as the flops of blockbusters made with all the gold in the world. This small loophole in human behavior in capitalism is comforting: not everything can be bought and there is still room for the unpredictable.
Looking back, it's easy to spot some clues. The April Fair has always been rich in influencers, formerly called celebrities. We are in the midst of the TikTok boom in Spain. As this party is prepared well in advance, the Sevillians have been heating up the atmosphere for weeks. And once the time has come, the venue is full of young people in dazzling dresses and the dangerous mobile combination in one hand, little bag in the other.
One, who was born in Logroño, has never been to this party nor has she had a special interest in it, but after this month of April she already knows what to do so that her espadrilles don't get damaged with the albero. I have not fallen into this internet black hole alone. The comments I have read oscillate between "if I get one more tiktok from the Fair I'll take a plane tonight" and "if I get one more tiktok I'll stab myself 84 times" which are, basically, the only two ways sensible to take life.
In a wild global competition for tourist attention, sometimes the best campaign consists of people being genuinely happy with their stuff, and sharing it.
