The magical night that the neighbors of Salt await all year

There is a summer night that Aliou Diallo never misses: the last night of Salt's main festival. “After a whole day of concerts, at 4 in the morning, the correfoc arrives, led by the Diables d’en Pere Botero, and often some other invited group. The correfoc winds through the town and ends at the church, in the old quarter, with a hot chocolate and a foam party that coincides with sunrise. It is a magical night that we look forward to all year, a night that makes you want to bring people to discover its magic. On this night, the essence of Salt is very much alive,” explains Diallo, who participated in the Salt main festival for the first time when he was 15 years old, as an active member of the scout group, after arriving in Catalonia from the Republic of Guinea at the age of 13.

Diallo celebrates that, at a time when many main festivals are ending earlier and earlier – so as not to disturb the neighbors – Salt's is growing. “Before, the correfoc ended with fireworks, and now a digital light show has also been incorporated. It’s wonderful to say that in Salt the festival endures and gains magnitude and followers. On this night, the children go to bed early and wake up at 4 in the morning to participate in the correfoc and arrive at the foam party, just as the bakery opens and they are finishing the first croissants”.

When he was little, Diallo experienced summers differently, because in the Republic of Guinea it was not hot or cold, but rather there was a dry season and a rainy season. “School holidays caught us in the rainy season, so we made many plans at home. And I’m not talking about the gentle rains we have here in Catalonia; in Guinea it could rain for 10 consecutive days and the rain was so intense that you could hardly do anything”. Therefore, the custom was to spend each night at a different friend's house. “We all went together and played cards, board games, and, later, on the console”.

Now, whenever he can, Diallo spends his summers near a river. “I like to escape to places with rivers; here we have the Ter, which irrigates a good part of the surroundings, and I enjoy it a lot”. Besides going on a tour of local festivals – and never missing his village's, of course – Diallo has a very particular summer tradition: rereading, every year, his favorite book: The strange one, by Albert Camus, a novel set in colonial Algeria. “There was also the tradition of seeing the trilogy ofThe Godfather, but I've already abandoned that one.” Perhaps from now on, he says, he will change it for the new film adaptation of "}The stranger, which celebrates that it "repairs some parts of the novel and better reflects the suffering of colonized people".