‘Stop won’t close!’: Musicians pissed off at being kicked out of Porto mall

One by one, always accompanied by a member of the municipal police, the musicians who brought life to the Stop shopping center in Porto on Tuesday remove materials from the premises where they have worked for years, after most of the stores were sealed off.

“ATTENTION: the institution is sealed by the City Council of Porto by order NUD/389310/2023/CMP of 06/21/2023 of the adviser of the Department of Finance, Economic Activities and Inspection due to the lack of permission to use”, could read the stands at the doors of each of the 105 stores that were sealed on Tuesday by the municipal police at the Stop mall.

A statement from the municipality, chaired by the independent Rui Moreira, claims that 105 of the 126 stores in this mall were sealed off in an operation that began in the morning, with the municipality guaranteeing that “this is not a closing process” Stop.

Musicians and other shop owners gathered at the door of Rua do Heroismo, waiting to collect their belongings, which was possible from about 13:30, but always accompanied by a member of the municipal police.

After the opening of the gate, if, on the one hand, they shouted “Porto Morto” and saw posters with the same message imitating the graphic identity of the municipality, on the other hand, there was hope that the Stop would come to life, even after 105 stores received the stamp .

“Stop won’t close!” the musicians and store owners chanted in sound projection, trying to counteract the start of a bureaucratic material gathering process that must last several days, given the complexity of the space that includes the stores. , cafes, rehearsal rooms and recording studios for the musical community of Porto.

Side by side PSP elements prevented erratic entry into the space, allowing the musicians, escorted by municipal police, to enter the stop just one hypothetical time in a slow process in which insults were heard in the middle.

“I have a band here at Stop with other colleagues who have other bands, we have a room, people usually rehearse here, and basically what we are trying to do is to promote the ‘underground’ culture that at the moment they are trying to promote. kill here in Porto, unfortunately,” said musician Mariana Moreira in Luce’s statements.

The artist believes that “nothing is really being done to preserve the authentic culture of what Porto and its ‘underground’ is,” criticizing the attempt to “try to erase and create some super-sterilized scene that doesn’t make any sense.” this city”.

Mariana Moreira also sees Stop’s closure as an attempt to “erase the quotation marks of people who still have the ability to think freely and create a culture associated with the type of free thinking that is something people don’t want.”

“They are trying to paint this very beautiful picture of what a city is, and at the same time, those who are from here, those who live here, know very well that this is not so,” he concluded.

Even before the sealing was completed, people were gathering at the doors of the stop and several shop owners staged an impromptu protest with placards on which they could read the messages “Casa da Música is here”, “We want justice”, “They are killing cultures” , “We want to work”, “This is our earnings” and “Bad faith claim”.

“This is the musical culture. Here is the Casa da Música, it is not in Boavista, it is here. There are a lot of young people here, different music, we all get along well. it’s family here, it’s not what they say there,” said Luce Mena Santos, a cafe worker at the Stop mall.

Mena Santos noted that “everyone” lives their activities at the Stop and that “musicians there do not ‘play for sport’ but for work.

“How will I work? Tell me where you can open a cafe on the street now. With these prices, this is for tourism, not for the people who live here, who were born here, who grew up here.” here,” protested Mena Santos, whose clientele was mostly musicians.

João Cardita, a drummer who rehearsed “for several years” at Stop but rented a room for about six months, told Luza that Stop was “his place to study” and work “almost every day”.

“It happened without warning. I came here today [terça-feira] in the morning, I arrived here at 10:30 and was already in that state. I had rehearsals here from 11:30 am until the evening, I was going to prepare several concerts, and it will not be possible to do this, ”he complained to Luce.

The young man regrets that he does not know “is this final or can something be done to solve this problem”, but at the moment “there is no other way out” than to leave the space.

When asked what this closure means for the culture of the city, Joao Cardita replied that “it’s terrible.”

“A large percentage of musicians from Porto rehearse here, metal bands, jazz, rock, whatever, and now we don’t have a place to rehearse. Our tools are locked here in the rooms, it’s another chaos. call the police or city hall, something like that,” he explained.

“To remove the equipment, you need to contact the municipal police,” the seals on the doors of the establishments were confirmed, also recalling that breaking them “implies the participation of the prosecutor’s office to initiate the relevant criminal process.”

At the moment the music can be heard on Rua do Heroísmo with the instruments already assembled in the studios, but the activity inside the Stop has stopped and this music community in Porto has no prospects for the future.