Examiner: We have been talking about a special event or festival that you liked. And now I’d like to talk about celebrations in more general terms. Why do you think celebrations are important in society?
Candidate: That’s a bit difficult. Mmm something like Las Fallas in Valencia it seemed to pull all the communities together. And so I think that maybe that’s the whole point of celebrations. It’s sort of ... it is literally celebrating something that we have in common and it could be with our families or it could be our friends or our area, or even our country.
Examiner: And apart from this benefit that you’ve talked about, you know, that festivals bringing people together, are there any other benefits to them do you think, or any drawbacks.
Candidate: Well in terms of another benefit I think these sorts of festivals probably encourage people to spend more money so I think there must be an economic benefit because I’ve noticed in these things, not just in Spain but in France and other places, that people when they go to these public festivals, they sort of, they’re eating and drinking, or perhaps they’re wearing special clothes or they’ve bought fireworks or something like that. So there must be quite a big economic impact locally. Drawbacks is more difficult. I suppose I mean, you know, possibly with so many people gathered in one place you could have some aggression, perhaps people behaving badly, perhaps even drunkenness, I don’t know
Examiner: Do you think celebrations are experienced differently by the different generations? By younger and older people? Do you think they experience these events differently?
Candidate: Well, I’m sort of in between the two really so...I can’t speak for either. Generally speaking though, I would imagine that older people might appreciate these celebrations because it’s like a continuation of something they are familiar with. It’s something that’s part of their culture, part of their local communities so they might be really appreciative of that side of it whereas I imagine younger people probably just enjoy them for the fun of being outside, being with their friends, something new, something different, something lively.
Examiner: Do you think in the future these types of event will become more or less common?
Candidate: Again, that’s quite difficult. I don’t think it’s a matter of more or less common really because I mean they are there. I suppose it’s more a matter of whether people will continue to support them or not. I think, my own feeling is that generally people do benefit from these things and will continue to support these local initiatives, these community actions in the future. So I think they probably get stronger rather than weaker in the future