Produced by the Pirates of Donostia

I am very proud to see so many people looking so happy

Happy birthday Pirates!

If you don't really don't know, this is Ska.

If they would have asked us in August 2003

What we started what would become ten years later

we wouldn't know answering that question

But nowadays the answer is clear

I have no doubt about the answer

shoveling once and again, we have boarded Donostia

congratulations to everybody!

Be pirate!

We're pirates because they have left us out of the proclamations

they have condemn us to obtain the treasure by ourselves

They left us out of the Aste Nagusia

but we have returned and we're prepared to remain

Be Pirate, board San Sebastian!

Why pirates?

Because we needed a person who was rebel

we needed a person related to the sea

related to Donostia

the bay would be its square

and he/she would express in there

these characteristics were perfectly defined by the pirates

The image of pirates is seen as something negative

but it has a very big symbolic meaning for me

it goes against those roles that are established, against the stereotypes and duties

something to change a bit.

I think it is a reasonable fight

to the organizer of the Aste Nagusia in 2003

a big event started to break in front of their faces

it starts from a very simple question

What happens in this city

the festivals in august to be in this way

The Aste Nagusia we know today

it wasn't called 'Aste Nagusia' in basque, it was only named 'Semana Grande' in spanish

and few events were carried out throughout it

the most important ones, as always, the fireworks at night

The Aste Nagusia was something just to see for us

we had a sandwich, went for a walk... there were some parades and concerts and that was all.

that was our party.

it was a totally mercantilist model

really, that was the way the Aste Nagusia was created in the XIX century, in the 1880th

Jose Arana, from Eskoriatza, did this event to become real

he come to live to Donosti when he was very young

from Donostia he went on a trip to Madrid

there he won the lottery and he returned to Donosti being rich

that's why he started to organize the bullfighters festivals and the concerts

continuing with his business logic

On that years, Donostia was becoming quite famous

In a great part, because Maria Cristina ,the Queen of spain, selected the beach of La Concha as her place for holiday

After Maria Cristina, many aristrocrats from Madrid also came to this surroundings

in that way, the Semana Grande was created in august

before in august i think that at first it was organized in july

but, the businessman and Josu Arana realized that

the business would be much bigger if the festival was organized in august

And well, we have to say it clear, to do that

they sent to the periphery all the other festivities that were cellebrated in the center and the Old Town of Donostia.

so that the comercial model and that kind of mercantilist festival would have free space.

They have reproduced that model year-by-year, decade-by-decade

during Franco times that logic of cellebrating increased completely,

Franco died, and all the next municipal governments

have kept the model completely.

That model has been what specific powers have used

to sustein a concrete image they wanted to relate with the city

and in the last years it was very clear when more and more private businesses

were taking part in the organization of the Big Week.

And that way we began conversations with the CAT (municipal organ, Centro Atracción y Turismo)

and the city hall

And we created what is called the Popular Comision of the Festivities.

'Jai Herrikoi Batzordea', in Basque.

That way, with these conversations we wanted to work on our intentions.

In Donoststia iw was not assumed that people could enjoy autonomously in the festival

everything was very measured and thought from the municipal entity

and they would decide what kind of Festival it would be done.

The people were mere spectator of the party.

In Donostia there have been several tries to change that feeling of just beeing spectator

people have tried to open new paths to that popular participation in the party.

They have tried to make txoznas (Basque popular bars, related to social movements)

they have organized alternative programs to face the oficial program imposed from the City Hall

all that from the 'Transition' to now has been.. and what to say during Franco's times

all these tries were sistematicaly attacked from the municipal government

and of course, it is controlled by the right of the city.

Since then, they have tried to eliminate any trace of popular party

We had a bad beginning in 1983, when Alkain was the mayor;

we put a temporary bar, a "txozna" in the Boulevard, and he sent some local policemen to take it away

In the following years, 1984, 1885 and 1986, we continued talking to the city council

and we kept moving forward

I have good memories from the 1986,when we came to an agreement with Labaien

he gave us all the permits for the concertsthat we used to organise in the port;

we got 4,000-5,000 people to be at the concerts,

something inconceivable at that time, a great number

And that is when our decline began,

when the city council saw that we were taking shape

and that we were, in some way, overshadowing the official programme,

they saw the risk

they said that our alternative proposal covered the official programme.

And then, they started to ban it again

But the worst moment and the hardest was the year 1988,

when Albistur was the mayor; they set the objective not to let us the port

they didn't let us be there; they told us that we couldn't set up anything there

we thought that they would change their mind at the last moment, as they did other times,

and when we came to set up our "txozna" and our place,

just there, under that building,

it was where we found the tremendous surprise

about 40 local policemen showed up there, with their dogs, ball guns, helmets and shields,

something we had never seen

the local police equipped as riot police

and when we started to set up everything

they charged against us and a great fight began here, in Portaletas

many people were injured, some women were hit by the balls

other young people had their forehead and nose broken by the truncheon blows

and it is said that some local policemen were also injured;

it was a tremendous fight, after all;

in fact, Donostia had never seen such a confrontation between the citizens and the police

That led, of course, to the following repression,

where 12 members of the commission were threatened

to go to jail for 16 months, but, finally, the judge rejected it

at least we resisted there that day; we managed to set up the "txozna"

we managed to carry out our programme

but, in the end, it happened what we thought

At dawn, the 'Beltzak' came (the riot squad of the Ertzaina),I think it was their first intervention in Donostia

they came in many vans, dressed totally as riot police,

and we were not in a position to face them;it was neither our objective.

they took away all the material we had, and they confiscated it

The following days, we made some kinds of leaps,

we used to set up the "txozna" at the Boulevard at six o'clock in the evening,

and we used to last ther until 2-3 o'clock in the morning.

when we dismantle the everithing, to avoid losing it

and, in this way, we used to assemble and dismantle everything everyday.

It was an exhaustion for us,

but we managed to keep firm our flag.

Besides, we saw that the city council not only was willing to ban it,

but also to attack the citizens,

and that it would be difficult to overcome that situation.

That situation led us almost to the nothingness

to those few things that the city council used to organise

and although the citizens used to organise themselves for other fields, they gave in as far as the Aste Nagusia was concerned

due to all those happenings.

Some years passed, and I don't remember exactly when,

but I think it was in 1990 or 1992, there was a sort of resurrection.

New people came to join us, with new purposes.

These people tried to keep and revive

the spirit of the Aste Nagusia and Herriko Jai Batzordea,by means of the "koadrilak" (groups of friends).

They got some results, and they were there for some years,

until we got in some way to this moment.

The party is important, so that the people can break the routine,

the dayly routine, the work, everything that anyone does in an ordinary day.

During the week , we have only some standard relationships, normalized relationships

The party breaks the monotony

the party breaks the way to understand life in a ritual way

the party is important, specially, as a counterweight to that standardisation

the political and economic power have standardized our lifestyle

the party is that necessary counterweight and that mental hygiene of the people,

so that the people can scape from the everyday life and understand that life has something more

That we can meet each other and talk calmly, without so many regulations.

What we are watching now is as important as "basque pelota" for the basque people

this is the Fandango, the famous Fandango

in the 90s there were some other attempts

It is truth that, by then, the relationship between the city council and the party comission was not really good

I was at work, in a bar and Barela called me.

For me Pirates are many things

I don´t know how to explain it.

I was 15-16 and I had taken part in some games before...

with my neighbours, they called me and said "come to the games" and I went and play in those games and took part in the Aste Nagusia

I took part in some activities organized by Pirates, but that was all

I was 15-16 and one day I was in the Old Part and a friend told me:

and there are two elements; I will talk specially about two of them

on the one hand the bar tenders, which is a sector of the Old Part who felt that dissatisfaction

I guess it is because as bartenders it has an influence on them

but also because they were part of the popular movements

and they wanted the party in Donosti to be popular and with its own identity.

That is why they started to do little things like preparing lunches, games between groups of friends...

When the bartenders started organising activities, the young people were not at the organisation yet.

We started to organise activities on the street Ikatz.

We were told that each bar had to organise a game:

the game of four people walking on two skis, to take an egg in the air and games like that...

We organised the "Euskal Bizikleta" (Basque Bicycle) with children's bikes.

I remember it was something that we created the bartenders in the bars,

and then, little by little the teamwork of some gaztetxes (occupied social centers) and the Gazte Asanblada (the youth assembly) resulted in the creation of the Pirates.

It was a group of young people, really imaginative, and with new ideas,

who had this feeling of mediocrity of the Aste Nagusia and this impossibility of orgainising a real party

and who wanted to change all that.

That is when, these two elements united and this is the result: Piratak.

There is not Aste Nagusia without the donostiarrak (the inhabitants of Donostia).

It is impossible to hide the memory of a city and it's desire to party.

The treasure of this party is obvious and the desire to recover that treasure has gained strenth again.

Let's do the boarding all together!

Let's do the Aste Nagusia together! Long live the Pirates!

Therefore, we needed a main activity, and that was 'The Boarding', without any doubt.

And we went out to sea.

We took the sea as the field of work and battle, for two main reasons:

On the one hand, because we saw that if we wanted to change the party in Donosti

we would need an element which we, the Donostiarrak, had relationship with,

and we saw, clearly, that if something makes Donostia different, that is the sea.

So, it was clear for us that everything that we organised, would be completely related to the sea.

And, on the other hand, we realised that there was a bureaucratic vacuum in the administration with regard to the sea.

specially, between the competences of the city council, the basque government and other public administrations

and yes, we used that vacuum to develop our project

That is why we suggested the boarding

The boarding had a clear logic:

we needed an activity that would join the party and the demands,

that would be built over three main bases:

The first one was the disobedience; we, as citizens, shouldn't ask permission to take part in out party.

Therefore, it was a strong decisicion to celebrate that activity without asking for permission.

The second one was the humour.

We saw that the imagination had to be linked to the humour, in order to spread our message

and in order to break that severity that transmitted the Aste Nagusia at that moment

And the third one, of course, the participation.

It had to be an event where as many people as possible could participate

It started with that humbleness.

That first year, only around 10, 15 or 20 rafts gathered, I don't remember exactly how many

I remember that I was there

It had an attraction, it was a success.

We got it right, we had guessed right what the people really wanted

"Drop anchor, down the bow..."

Pirates are nice people.

At the beginning, I remember that the first year the local police was waiting for them to arrest them

I remember that when we finished the first boarding at the beach of La Concha

the local police came to us, asking for documentation.

We told them that we didn't have any documentation,

and, next, they told us that we couldn't leave the remains of the rafts there.

And, in the end, we held a meeting just there, and we decided to leave the rafts, in front of the city hall as a protest.

We had many problems to carry that out,

because from the city council and from the CAT they raised a huge number of obstacles and problems.

But, little by little, when the Gazte Asanblada (Youth assembly) took charge of that work,

that is when, with a good organisation, we succeeded in bringing forward this activity,

"Local bosses and tyrants rowing in the galleys"

"The Pirates' flag on the mast of the city hall..."

At first, this movement started as something very informal; we were a group of friends.

The second year, there was an ebolution, the third year a growth.

We can say that when the fifth year came we gained recognition.

The party was established completely.

The party carried on, year after year, and what we organised had more and more success.

And we realised that the donostiarras,

and the citizens that take part in the program Pirates,

need an image, an image to identify with.

In 2007, we presented for the first time the character "Ezkila Kapitaina" (the captain Ezkila)

In order to creat Ezkila Kapitaina, first of all, we looked back in history,

we analised and read the history of Donostia,

and we realised that some centuries ago

Donostia was an important pirate port or, at least, an important corsair port.

We started to become interested in characters, and we discovered among the characters, a pirate known as "Campanario"

With a clumsy playword, we turned the spanish word "Campanario" into the basque word "Ezkila"

and that is how "Ezkila Kapitaina" became the main image and icon of the Pirates of Donostia

And an image that year after year gets more famous.

Congratulations!

Congratulations one more time, as we said on saturday, for having boarded Donostia.

Congratulations for all the work.

This kind of iniciative requires an almost professional organisation.

It starts on January; we make an evaluation of last year and we propose new ideas for the next year.

We talk, we reach some agreements and we consider them.

Because all the material, all the waste that heap up there

It is necessary the work of about 200 people.

To tell the truth, people work almost 24 hours.

Maybe the most visible work during the party is the one of being serving at the bar.

or the security at the concerts, but, actually, both before the Aste Nagusia,

during the Aste Nagusia, or after, there is a lot of work to do.

For example, we start setting up the tent two days before;

one week before, we hold a meeting among all the groups of friends to organise all the duties and responsibilities

They might seem superficial, but apart from that work there are a lot of things to do while the people are partying

there is a lot of cleaning to do, in order to leave everything ready for the next day.

Some hours before the concerts, they must do the sound check, give the dinner to the groups,

and after the Aste Nagusia, it comes the dismantling.

Everything must be dismantled, to leave all the areas as they were before or better.

Then, there are meetings to see where we have failed, what can be improved,

in order to make improvements facing the coming years.

By the time we realised, we had a programme for the whole week,

and, at that time, a debate was created inside the Pirates about the new model of organisation.

In this new model, anyone or any group can organise anything.

As more and more groups of friends were taking part, it was the moment to create a "Kofradia".

To gather all the groups and to organise games and activities for young people.

And to organise a programme specially for ourselves, inside this new organisation.

It is amazing to see that what it was created in a bar

has now reached this point..

The boarding starts at 5 o'clock in the morning,

and it lasts the whole day, until the night.

It starts at the port, and, to follow an order from the beginning,

there are some volunteers with orange vests, as filters.

Once having passed them, there is the place to assemble the raft.

After having assembled the raft there are other volunteers to help to carry the raft to the sea.

The best moment is when all the rafts leave the port to go to La Concha,

but behind all that, there is a lot of voluntary and communitary work.

And, that is why, an organisation was started to mantain order; each group has an hour to assemble their raft,

and there are some volunteers to make the participants respect the schedule.

Afterwards, there are other volunteers in the water gathering and ordering all the rafts.

"In a half an hour, Donostia will be ours..."

And in the morning, when people are preparing the rafts, there are other volunteers preparing the lunch,

and when the boarding starts, at the same time, the organisers start cleaning up everything.

and they keep on cleaning, until everyone gets to La Concha and everyone leaves.

All aboard!

"Drop anchor, down the bow..."

"We've arrived with the strength of 200 cannons"

"Throughout Donostia the laugh of the skull"

"We've arrived with the strenght of 200 cannons"

"Throughout Donostia the laugh of the skull"

Security is also essential, and, that is why we work with the Red Cross and the firefighters.

"The flag of the party waves next to the seaguls"

"The wooden leg dancing in the streets"

"The flag of the party waves next to the seaguls"

"the wooden leg dancing in the streets"

And then, when we arrive at the beach, there are people cleaning up everything until it gets dark.

There are around 200 people in the organisation, and without this community work, "Abordaia" (the boarding) wouldn't exist.

We threw the stone

and we saw that from the first time the citizens joined the iniciative that we proposed.

At that time, we had a question.

How are we going to get back all the spaces that the city council and other authorities have taken away from us, the citizens?

And some years later, we created "Irrikitaldia"

An event where we parody the attitudes of the city council and the mayor

and the obstacles they put.

What do you think about this year's programme?

Odon! Odon! (Ex-mayor of Donostia, Odon Elorza)

Authorities try to impose a logic where they are always in first line.

The priest, the soldier, the mayor... they are always in the first line, and the rest are secondary participants.

That crash is a popular festival

People boost a festival where they are the participants.

And a festival that is imposed by a power has created a lot of contradictions.

Thank you Pirates of Donostia!

During the last few years music has been a field The Pirates have used to make themselves noticeable

During the last few years

music has been a field The Pirates have used

to make themselves noticeable

on one hand, in the beginning The Pirates offered music at Trinitate Plaza

Thanks The Pirates of Donostia!

Thanks The Pirates of Donostia!

During the last few years The Pirates have used music as a field

to make themselves noticeable

On one hand, in the beginning

The Pirates offered music shows

at Trinitate Plaza

and balancing the budget was the unique goal

My responsability during the three or four years