Juzcar, a tiny village that lies along Spain's picturesque Costa Del Sol (Sunny Coast) used to be just like all the neighboring towns - A pristine white. Then in June of 2011, folks from Sony Pictures picked this little Malaga town from a pool of 200 candidates as the venue for the world premier of their upcoming movie, Smurfs 3D, and asked to paint the entire town, a Smurf Blue!
The villagers agreed on the condition that come September, the entertainment giant would turn all the buildings back to their original white. However, while September is long gone, Juzcar still remains a shocking blue and, its not because Sony Corp. reneged on their promise, but because, the villagers are not sure they want to go back to the same boring look.
The reluctance is thanks to the fact that its fame as the world's First Smurf Village has turned this once unknown town, which has been around since 711 AD, into a tourist mecca. Since the day the dozen painters walked into their village and covered the structures with 1,000 gallons of blue paint, life has been just smurfantastic! Over 80,000 people have visited the town boosting its economy and creating several new jobs and, while the movie may be off the theaters, the visitors keep coming.
To decide whether they should remain Smurf Village forever, the townspeople have been asked to submit their vote between 10am and 6pm on Sunday December 18th. Considering the fact that the locals have nicknamed their Mayor, 'Papa Smurf', we have a sneaky feeling about the outcome, don't you?
Resources: huffingtonpost.com, typicallyspanish.com, dailymail.co.uk