27-year-old Luis Sanjuan is from Barranquilla, in the north of Columbia, though his accent now has more than a hint of the Stopfordian about it. Barranquilla has the second biggest carnival in the world after Rio, and every year for four days before Lent, the city descends into chaos, with sound systems in every doorway and celebratory carnage in the streets.
“The whole city collapses,” he grins. “The King and Queen of the carnival read out a decree telling everyone to stop working, stop caring about their bosses, their companies, start drinking, staying out late. There are no buses, no taxis, no one works. It’s not a national holiday, but everyone in the city knows that no one is going to turn up for work.”
He jokes that when he ventured into Stockport for the first time 10 or so years ago, when he was studying at Stockport College, it had an air of downtown Barranquilla about it. But not necessarily the carnival side of things.
