Barcarès Christmas Village: will traders find their way there despite the wind-related closures?

The wind once again disrupted the plans for the Barcarès Christmas village. After being forced to close its doors in the middle of the Purissima weekend, a public holiday in Southern Catalonia, between Saturday December 7 in the middle of the afternoon and Sunday 8 in the morning, the park had to be evacuated this Sunday 22 around 5 p.m. Due to strong gusts which made his visit dangerous. The site remained closed this Monday for the same reason. At the end of the morning, the town of Barcarès announced the reopening of the village for December 24.

Is this succession of unexpected closures likely to weigh on the village's economy? “It's too early to tell, answers Michel Sitja. Last year, we were already forced to close for two or three days in the last period and the results were still generally good.”

If the wind calms down, we should be fine

However, in the meantime, the park's traders are starting to worry. “The fact that we have regular bad weather this year is a problem, believes Mickaël Casas, from the Le Clocher chalet. It's not a big deal that it's windy outside of holidays and weekends. This is not where the best crowds are. Everything depends on the 15 days of vacation. If the wind calms down during the period, it should be good.” Read implicitly: otherwise, the impact risks hurting. But Mickaël Casas continues to believe in it. “As soon as the weather is nice, customers are there”positive-t-il.

We try to save the furniture

Others are less optimistic. “We will never make up for what we lost, deplores a trader who wished to remain anonymous. Between the closing days and the cost of the chalets, it's going to be difficult. The problem is that it's always the weekends that it's windy and rainy. The village lasts around fifty days, but we mainly work over 15 days. And these 15 days, we are missing them. We're trying to save the furniture.”