aura farming battles canary islands

Aura farming battles arrive in the Canary Islands

Compiled with the help of artificial intelligence, based on Spanish-language information. Source below the article.

A new trend leaves social media behind

Popular culture today is largely fuelled by the viral phenomena that emerge from the digital ecosystem. To a greater or lesser extent, a significant part of everyday life for most people now takes place online: the twenty-first-century agora. But the latest craze sweeping through young people has left social media behind and moved into the squares and parks of Spain: aura farming battles, competitions in which participants imitate poses, gestures and dances taken from memes or video games, among other things, to demonstrate their charisma and self-confidence.

First battle in Tenerife draws a crowd

The pioneering edition in the Canary Islands took place last weekend in the Tenerife city of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, specifically in the bar area known as El Cuadrilátero, and attracted more than a hundred curious onlookers of all ages. In Gran Canaria, two events are already scheduled in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Vecindario for next Saturday, 29 August.

This new trend, which has already enjoyed great success in other countries such as Mexico and Brazil, is intrinsically linked to the world of video games and social media. The term “farming”, familiar to gamers, refers to the repetitive accumulation of a particular resource. In titles such as League of Legends, characters accumulate experience points to level up or gold to improve their economy and buy new items. In this way, the character farms gold, the game’s currency, in order to equip themselves and become more powerful.

What is aura farming?

The same concept is applied to aura: a term associated with the charisma, style, presence or confidence someone demonstrates in a given situation. For example, if a person were to perform a perfect somersault in the air in front of a crowd, a young person might say they have gained “+1000 aura”. Conversely, if they had tripped and fallen in the attempt, the opposite would happen and the number would turn negative, or the word aura would change to “laura”, its counterpart.

Now that the terms are clear, in an aura farming battle, two or more participants are surrounded by a crowd in a circle. At that moment, each one begins to chain together gestures, dance moves or popular memes with the aim of drawing applause and ovation from the audience or, in some cases, even from a pre-appointed jury. In this way, the charisma of young people is measured through their knowledge and execution of poses and actions popular on the internet.

Some examples of these actions include the “six seven”, an expression accompanied by an arm movement hugely popular on social media, to the point that Pope Leo XIV even performed it during his visit to Madrid; “mewing”, a gesture involving clenching the jaw and tracing its line from the ear to the chin; “sigma” poses, a term referring to an independent personality indifferent to the opinion of society, confident in oneself; or Fortnite dances, from one of the most popular video games in the world, which includes a wide variety of dances and gestures related to current popular culture.

Participants loved the atmosphere

Samuel Ramírez was one of the participants in the battle held in San Cristóbal de La Laguna. The large crowd that gathered outside the bars on Plaza Víctor Zurita Soler was a pleasant surprise that, far from making the young man nervous, only added to his enjoyment and that of the other participants: “The battle was mad, it was something I was really looking forward to. The atmosphere was spectacular: I expected something to kick off, a fight or something like that given the area it was in, but those of us who were there just mucked about for a while and had a great time,” he explains. He also appreciated that it was an activity where he got to meet new people despite having only recently arrived on the island.

Mixed reactions to the phenomenon

Reactions to this phenomenon generally follow two lines of thought. On the one hand, many people do not understand it and argue about how young people today spend their time, claiming they spend too many hours on social media. On the other, there are those who celebrate that young people are making social plans in groups outdoors, and who support the idea that, even if they do not understand it, young people are having fun without harming anyone.

Be that as it may, this new viral fad has burst onto the scene in the Canary Islands with force and, at least for now, appears to be evolving rapidly. At future editions, such as the one to be held in Vecindario, there will be a jury and three prizes for the podium: the winner taking gold will be given the highly anticipated video game Grand Theft Auto VI, second place will receive a €100 voucher to spend at a local business, and bronze will get a Unión Deportiva Las Palmas shirt. Only time will tell whether this is yet another fleeting trend or, on the contrary, one that is here to stay.

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