Cinderella, in the famous version of the Grimm Brothers, must respect a precise curfew – the midnight – because her “dream will become truth”: a magical evening, free from thoughts and worries of every type, they are the correct motivations for an engaged girl like she.
The spell lived in the hours before the midnight tolls are the manifestation of that “spells” happen but at the same time they have a duration, we say, rather short.
A small preamble, this, in order to speak about Venice and its situation: we do not find chariots that return pumpkins, dances at palace with the hereditary prince or crystal shoes lost along the road; we find however a city that, beginning from a certain hour, does not know her vitality any more, its appeal, its “magic”.
The decree wanted from the township the 30 june that ratifies «the prohibition between the 00.01 and the 6 of the next day the commerce of alcoholic and feeds let alone the exercise of handicraft activities of production of alimony» still cuts more to the legs to a city already too aground to laws and constrictions of every kind, hurting in this way that part of the city that we’re supposed to preserve but, in the end, is not protected: the category of the young people.
Punishing kabab sellers, pizza take away sellers, and ice cream opened after dinnerand bars in general, there is the concrete risk to lose of eye the interests and the promises made to the “future of this city”.
Second part of the decree is «the prohibition between the 00.01 and the 8 of the next day of any kind of musical enterteinment, performance, and use of any music instrument» The stop to the live concerts and the dj-sets, limiting some the proposals and the timetables of closing (is always spoken about the 00.01) is the ulterior blow to this situation, all – like it has been justified from those who have taken such provisions – in order “to clean up” the university zones of the city from the excess of chaos created from the consumed and forgotten on the ground bottles, plazas and streets taken for own drawing-room – or worse – own bathe.
Partially shareable choices for a problem of behaving, but also not because the restrictions go to penalize also all those who propose an healthy and balanced after-dinner, where the art (music) is stirred to the pleasure of a good drink.
Let’s think to what happened in occasion of the Art Night, the White Night, where art in its several shapes and culture opened the doors till the midnight, recalling a remarkable public of young people: sure a bet gained, but if that is limited to a single time per year and above all till the midnight, we risk to make the same end of Cinderella, to escape from the dream, the much hoped spell.
What we discuss is instead the truth that is in front of us every day, the immotivated truth of a city that has all in itself the potentialities for being a center, a catalyst of art, culture and fun for the young people, but because of laws and restrictions denies such opportunities to them.
by Alberto Goattin
