Josh Fried: Spain is a nightlife paradise

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It's 2:15 a.m. on a Tuesday night in Cadiz, Spain, and hundreds of musicians have taken to the local square, blasting bugles, trombones and tubas.

Another 50 musicians beat the drums so loudly I could hear them 10 blocks away inside the soundproof hotel.

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They continue to make this beautiful racket every week, sometimes until 4 am, but the neighbors never complained.

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Because at 2 o'clock in the morning, the whole neighborhood came out to the square and applauded the night scenes: the smiles of Spanish grandmothers, seven-year-old children kicking soccer balls with their father, mothers holding babies in scarves, eager to see their first sight.

Welcome to Santa Semana – Easter Holy Week in Spain.

In famous Montreal, more residents are filing noise complaints, threatening and even closing down some of the plateau's veteran music bars.

Even the jazz festival in our town closes at midnight because the neighbors demand silence. Like many North Americans, we value our sleep and see nighttime noise as an enemy.

But Spain is a paradise for night owls like me, a place to visit at any time.

To be fair, Santa Semana is the biggest annual event in southern Spain. Throughout the week, large nightly religious processions noisily flow through the streets in a five-century-old tradition.

They admire the hundred-year-old giant floats with Easter scenes such as the Weeping Virgin Mary or the Crucifixion, which are perfectly and painstakingly carried by hand in each district.

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Although Easter processions at midnight are special occasions, they are a symbol of nightlife throughout Spain.

In countless cities from Barcelona to Madrid to Seville and Cadiz, you'll see Spanish troops filling the streets and restaurants until 2am and even 4am every year.

Many sit on bar stools outside, downing Rioja wine and chorizo ​​tapas, even in the 10-degree winter.

They are warmed by radiant outdoor heaters on every last restaurant terrace in the country. It's something I'd like to see more of in Montreal, as we often enjoy the cool spring and fall outdoors.

Frankly, the Spanish make us sarcastic, nocturnal Quebecers seem like weather and early birds.

Since COVID-19, many Montreal restaurants close their kitchens at 8pm and close at 9am due to staff shortages.

But in Spain, many restaurants don't even open until 8:30 p.m., and rarely fill up until 10, when most of Europe is in bed. Food is served until 1 am, often later.

How do the Spanish deal with sleep? In southern Spain, the traditional midday 14:00 siesta is adopted, when most shops (and schools) close for two or three hours, making it difficult to even buy milk.

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Work resumes after siesta and often lasts until 8:00 p.m., so dinner rarely starts until 8:30, except for greedy tourists looking for outdoor pizza.

For night owls, Spain is the night sky: a buzzing sleepless land, alive with people of all ages, partying until they drop.

But even here, the early bird sounds louder.

Some require restaurants to close at 10pm so workers can get more sleep. Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz of the ruling Socialist Party recently said she wants Spain to switch to traditional European clocks and also wants to pay night workers more.

He calls the country's night culture “madness.”

“No sane country would keep restaurants open until one in the morning,” he says.

But there is massive, vociferous opposition from disgruntled night owls to change Spain's night time schedule. Among them: Isabel Ayuso, the mayor of Madrid, who recently condemned the early birds:

“They want us (the Spanish) to be puritanical, materialistic, soulless, socialist without lights and restaurants, Spain has the best night life in the world … but they want us to be bored and at home.”

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Likewise, José Luis Yzuel, president of the tourism organization Hospitality Spain, says that the reason Spain is the third most visited country in the world is its nightlife.

“Our Labor Minister wants to turn us into a closed, sad, gray country in Eastern Europe,” he added. “Why should we be as mild as the Europeans, when we envy their hospitality?”

Even for us night owls, it's easy to see both sides of the picture: the love of partying in the night city, but also the desire of some to sleep more and work less. Or at least get paid well for working after 10pm

No matter how you feel, it doesn't look like the curtain will be coming down on Spanish nightlife anytime soon. I've been to a few cities in Spain recently and all were full until 2am, and then I stayed longer.

When I ask people how they like it, they all say they wouldn't change it for anything.

It looks like Spain will remain the planet's night owl as we North Americans hit the sack early.

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