The Brass Band Outside my Window

Having grown up in a former 'ribbon development area' just outside Canterbury city centre, I am not used to brass bands marching outside my window. Occasionally there's a really old jogger, Silvia walking her unbelievably large poodle, kids on bikes, maybe the odd horse but nothing which makes you leave your desk, open the window and go 'WOW! LETS GO OUTSIDE RIGHT NOW!'

There are a lot more wows of this nature living as a student in Bologna; a hotbed of student liberalism, Italian communism and a vitally important city in the history of European socialism. The protest culture is much more vibrant. But locals lament the decline of poltical activism in Bologna over the last 20 years, and generally see the 'comune' (council) unrelentingly favouring the town's ageing residents in 'keeping the noise down'. The more alternative bars are having to shut earlier, the city's legendary 'social centre' scene has been whittled down from 20/30 to just one or two which are marginalised on the city's periphery, and the right to congegrate is always frustrated by Carabinieri saying you can't sit down but have to stand in the main university piazza to eat your slice of pizza or share a beer.

The band outside my window were marching with the aim of addressing the issue of diminishing social spaces in Bologna, which they believe fuels a climate of social angst and increases racial tensions within the city. The organisation calls itself 'La Ronda per Piacere'. This basically means 'walking around for fun'. You're not going to or returning form work, you're not walking with a specific aim of arriving anywhere in particularly: you're embracing your right to the city's public spaces.

Surely everyone at some stage in their lives has at least been on one protest of some sort about something. It's usually quite a frustrating experience. You're marching because you want international powers to pressure Israel to stop bombing the shit out of Lebanon, and someone is yanking at your sleeve trying to get you to sign up to the Communuist Party of Swindon. ALL the issues are invariably shoved into one big leftie mush of climate change, anti-globalisation, anti-war, veganism, CND, anti-capitalism, fair trade, anti-America etc etc, and inevitably you start to feel a bit of a fool as the issue at hand gets lost and it all feels so spineless.

The beauty of 'Ronda per Piacere' was that the march validated itself by virtue of it being a march. The whole idea is to demonstrate how exciting, interactive and enjoyable city streets can be. So how about everyone bring an instrument, we'll photocopy some lyric sheets, get a couple of beers and lets go for a walk together! Wailing saxophones, plodding euphoniums, pocket trumpets, stomping snares and squealing clarinets, all rollicking through a mix of traditional Italian and Balkan songs. Unlike the obligatory samba band in the standard political protest, which tends to get fucking irritating after a few hours, the Balkan tunes were joyful. It's what I imagine a Macedonian wedding to be like; the band marches through town collecting all the guests and everyone congregates for the wedding party to get thoroughly wankered together. We were flanked by two squads of Carabinieri police, but even they must have enjoyed a bit of music. It actually diffused any antagonism between police and walkers, despite the fact we were going straight down the middle of a main road. But even motorists were winding down windows, honking horns and enjoying seeing a bunch of people singing together, without being barked at to fly less and eat more vegetables. It was very hard to resist joining in on an aimless Saturday afternoon.