The Hortaleza Spring Festival officially kicked off this Friday, not with an official speech, but rather with a massive public whistle. Thirty local groups united to express their discontent with councilor David Pérez, criticizing his persistent mistreatment of community networks and attacks on citizen participation. According to the district's Coordinating Committee of Entities, Pérez earned the nickname "party pooper" due to his frequent clashes with neighborhood associations, notably leaving them without booths at the festival.

This marks the second consecutive year the festivities began with such a protest. Despite Pérez being aware of the impending demonstration, even loud music couldn't drown out the thunderous dissent that echoed past 8:30 PM at the Pilar García Peña auditorium in Pinar del Rey park.

In response to a similar protest in 2024, Pérez questioned whether the protesters actually lived in the district. However, this year, those dissatisfied made it clear that the only outsider is Pérez himself.

Over 200 individuals, representing a diverse audience at the auditorium, expressed their disapproval with whistles and boos for more than ten minutes. Many wore shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Without neighborhood associations, there is no community." Stickers, press, posters, and banners further highlighted the public's unrest: "David, what a bother! Get out of Hortaleza," "Hortaleza is built, not destroyed," "Neighborhood festivities without the neighborhood," "All associations are community."

Various association leaders labeled Pérez as a "parachutist," opposing the community fabric due to his authoritarian management style that has sidelined citizen participation and belittled historical groups, some with half a century of existence.

Pérez, who has acquired the popular moniker "party pooper," faced the whistle in 2024 for cutting the budget for community events at the Hortaleza festival, and this year, he continued his dispute with associations. The Coordinating Committee of Entities of Hortaleza alleges he excluded critical groups from the fairgrounds' booth allocations, threatening their financial sustainability since the district's festivals are a major funding source. According to the community radio station Radio Enlace, the exclusion was made legal by changing traditional criteria in the public contest for booth concessions, introducing merits penalizing the associative network.

The whistle against David Pérez paused only for the festival's official speech, delivered respectfully by members of the Madrid Women's Football Club, a team competing in the Liga F, the top division.

Hortaleza enjoys 10 days of festivities until June 8, and it's likely, even preferable, that the residents' desire for fun will overshadow the ongoing disputes with the councilor during these days. Regardless, if a festive truce occurs, it will begin after an inaugural night where David Pérez barely spoke: the stoic councilor faced an army of crickets.

"In Hortaleza, we have ample reasons to protest. In just two years, the councilor has banned neighborhood-organized festivals and music events, eliminated Madrid's longest-running jazz concert series, arbitrarily imposed a nonsensical 'dry law' at some neighborhood events, and dismantled the municipal center for citizen participation to hand it over to an external entity. He also ended a pioneering community composting project and minimized aid to civic entities," justify the neighborhood associations.