Seville Feria de Abril
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‘Excerpt from 'Flamenco fever'’By Alex Leith for The Independent First published January 16, 2005
...The April Fair is a seven-day party of dancing, hand-clapping, drinking, eating and showing off for Sevillanos of all ages and classes; an annual expression of high spirits, and testament to the local citizens' incredible stamina.
Started in 1847 as a fair for the sale of livestock, the Feria soon turned into a festival to celebrate the end of winter, and an antidote to the religious fervour of Madonnas-in-the-street Holy Week, which it closely follows. Since 1973, it has been held on wasteland reclaimed from the Rio Guadalquivir, the river which lends the city its fertility. Each year this land is converted into a temporary town composed of over 1,000 stripy marquees, known as casetas, built along a mile-long, 600-yard-wide grid-pattern of streets, all named after local bullfighters.
The festival starts at midnight on a Monday. A dignitary presses a switch, the streets are illuminated with over a million lights and Chinese lanterns, hundreds of flamenco groups start their music and everybody gets stuck in to the food and booze. Most casetas are owned by local families: having one is a social marker, and getting into one is impossible without an invitation. Invitations, for a foreign visitor, are extremely hard to come by.
This doesn't mean that you can't enjoy the party. It spills out into the street, and there are a number of casetas open to the public, either run by the council, or by one of the many socialist or anarchist groups in the city. The casetas serve pescaito (fried fish) and other tapas, beer and glasses of the popular golden-coloured local wines - either dry fino sherry or the slightly lighter manzanilla. Many mix this with lemonade, a wise move: nobody goes to bed till five or six in the morning.
The locals dance as much as they drink. The "Sevillana" seems to be a skill innate to the Andaluz: couples twirl around one another, never touching, always flirting. It's a bizarre and extravagant mating ritual, without the mating. If you're a guiri (foreigner), you'll inevitably try it, even if you're not dressed for the occasion - or in possession of the requisite skills. Full Article from The Independent Review by press. Have you been here? Why not add your own review. |
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