Feria de Sevilla

April 24-29

I have been so delayed with my posts lately, and I'm sorry. I have been very busy travelling and having fun. I have just finished writing a few different posts that I will upload throughout the week. Unfortunately, they will not be in chronological order so I've decided to put the dates of each event at the top of the post. Happy reading!

...

the portada (entry way)

Every spring in Sevilla, there is a giant fair known as Feria (Spanish for fair). It takes place approximately two weeks after Easter, and it is basically a week long celebration of spring and happiness in general. It involves women (and little girls) dressing up in beautifully colored flamenco dresses, and men in suits from a 1950s horseback riding film (at least in my mind). Of course, you can dress however you like, but this is the typical wear. There are hundred of tents called “casetas”, and these tents are essentially people’s homes for the week of feria. There is food and dancing and drinking of course. The typical drink of feria is called rebujito, and it consists of manzanilla (a variety of sherry wine) and sprite. It is certainly not my drink of choice but to get into the spirit of feria, I definitely drank a fair amount of rebujitos. They also set up an amusement park of sorts I suppose to keep the children entertained. But let me tell you, it kept adult children entertained too. If the rides didn’t cost money, I would have spent much more time at the attractions than I did.

A very important part of feria is the special type of music and dance, called sevillanas (very original name). All year various people have told me that if I want to enjoy the feria, I have to learn sevillanas. I did not learn the dance before feria, but I did pick it up a little during the fair. Every time I met up with a Spanish person they asked if I had learned yet, and when they found out I hadn’t, they took me straight to the dance floor. The music that accompanies the dance is really nice. The songs usually have a guitar and they follow a certain beat that you can clap to if you are danceologically challenged like me. Also, these songs are generally expressions of someone’s pride to be from Seville or Andalucía in general. They talk about how great it is to be from the south and how Seville is the best city there is. It’s nice to hear how proud they are, but it’s clear that these singers have never been to New York!

Now the problem with feria is that it is not officially a holiday in Seville, although many people don’t work/go to school that week. However Pilas, my pueblo, did not have vacation for feria because there aren’t too many Pileños that go to the feria. But you’re only an American living in Seville during feria once. So I had to go every day (didn’t have to of course but really wanted to because its lots of fun). There was a bit of struggling at school that week, with only 4-5 hours of sleep each night but I survived. Also that week Katie was visiting from Switzerland so we were busy sightseeing and walking around during the time we weren’t at feria. Very busy week but I’m really glad I got to experience the feria of Seville. Hope I can be back here for next year’s!

the scene

me and katie before feria one day