What is a “local”? 

by Joseba A.

A local is a place were young people can meet. A group of friends rent a commercial space such as a garage or a shop and they can decorate it as they want. You rent that place and you can do whatever you want there. We usually have sofas, TVs, Play Station, computers, fridges, microwaves… It is like a second house for us. There you can smoke or drink or have parties, but usually here people have problems with neighbours because of the noise.

The owner of the shop or the local usually makes a contract where he puts how much you have to pay per month and also he asks for some money if something is broken. Usually the owner goes to the local to take the money every month and he also sees if there is any problem in there. If neighbours call police because of the noise, or the local is too dirty, the owner normally kicks the local to the group of friends and breaks the contract.

Nowadays it is really difficult to have one, because the owners of the shops or garages know that young people here cause lots of troubles and don’t want to have problems.

Here we also have “Gaztetxe” that means house of young people, and the difference between that and the local is that in the Gaztetxe can enter anybody and also the house is occupied, so nobody pays every month. We usually make concerts and big parties in Gaztetxes because they used to be separated from other houses, so there are not neighbours.

We usually prefer the local because you know the people is inside and when there is cold it is easier to heat the place.