FERIA round two

Last year around this time, I wrote a post about the Feria of Sevilla. My last sentence was “Hope I can be back here for next year’s!” Well, what do you know my wish came true.

Another feria come and gone. Rebujitos, casetas, trajes de flamenca and Sevillanas. Dashing men (and women) riding on horseback. Go with old friends, leave with new ones. A temporary tent city with streets named after famous bullfighters, carnival rides and fried dough, dancing until the sun comes up.

mapa del real de la feria or the fair grounds

Each year in April, two weeks after Easter Sunday, the people of Sevilla celebrate the arrival of spring (this year is felt more like summer) with this huge fair. Many towns and cities around Spain have similar celebrations throughout the year, but Sevilla has come to be one of the biggest and most well-known of them all.

I’ve gathered some information over my two years as to how and why the feria tradition began. Not sure if this is accurate but here’s what I’ve learned.

The idea was proposed by a Catalan and a Basque who suggested to the city council in the mid 1800s that three days in April be dedicated to the selling and trading of livestock and crops. At first, the feria was held in a small park with something like 20 casetas (tents). Over the years it gained fame and success (now there are over 1000 casetas), and the feria had to move to a bigger space. In the 1920s, the feria started to change into what it is now: a small city within the boarders of Sevilla that springs up for a week in April and becomes a temporary home for Sevillanos to dance and sing and eat and drink. Still not clear on why/when feria became an event dedicated to partying rather than to commerce and trade.

The feria begins on a Monday night with a dinner called “el pescaíto”, andaluz for “fried fish”. The dinner does involved lots of fried fish, but also your typical Spanish noshes: jamón, queso, olives etc. This dinner is only for members of the casetas (all other days of feria members can invite guests into their little tent homes). At midnight on the first night, there is a ceremonial turning on of all the lights known as “el alumbrao”, andaluz for “the lighting or the illumination”. Right at midnight, all the lights around the feria are turned on, including the lights of the portada, the entranceway into the fair. There are over 350,000 light bulbs used to light the place up at night.

Every year the portada is inspired by an important event, monument or building in the city. Last year it was based on the facade of El Salvador Church in Sevilla.

the real church

 Portada 2012

This year it was loosely inspired by Plaza de España, although the dimensions aren’t accurate (the two towers are not actually joined by a bridge). 

the real Plaza España

Portada 2013

This feria I decided to get into the spirit a little bit more than I did last year by buying my very own traje de flamenca. Many women in Sevilla acquire a new dress for every feria, for those who can’t afford it, every couple of years. It is not so difficult to find someone who has so many to spare that they are willing to lend one out for a feria season. The problem is that these dresses are very tailored to one’s body, so unless you find someone who is your exact body twin, it is hard to borrow a dress. Plus, I think of it as a great souvenir for the future. In an ideal world I would have liked to design a dress for myself, which many Spanish women do, but since I cannot afford to spend €400+ on a single article of clothing, I bought a “predesigned” dress from a store. Of course when you buy from a regular store you run the risk of being seen in the same traje as someone else! HORROR! And I did actually see a couple of people wearing the same one as me, but given that I am a guiri (foreigner), I didn’t mind. Here is a photo of me in my dress.

me and my ladies before feria day 3, i believe

For me an important part of the feria is the attraction park called “Calle del Infierno”, or Hell Street. I think my childhood must have been lacking in town fairs because of the excitement I feel when I am there, or maybe I just love going on rides. This time around I only went on two rides because I was just having so much fun at the “adult feria”. Also, it is really hard to sit down in a flamenco dress so I had to dress differently on the day I wanted to visit the rides. I went on one incredible ride called the Inverter that does just what it says, inverts. It is a two minute adrenaline pumping experience in which you are turned upside down, backward and sideways so many times that by the end of the ride its hard to tell which way is up. It was awesome. I also rode the Ferris wheel, which is not usually my first choice when it comes to rides but my friends outvoted me. It was actually a pretty fast moving Ferris wheel so it wasn’t as boring as Ferris wheels usually are. And from the top there was an amazing view of the entire fair ground. Since I went at night all you can see are the lanterns that line the streets of the feria and mark the location of each caseta. It was quite impressionante.

view from the top of the Ferris Wheel

So, feria round two, mission accomplished. Although I am sad because this is probably the last time I will be at Feria de Abril for a long time, I think I went out with a bang. I attended every night of the Feria, including the alumbrado the first night. I danced Sevillanas (or my awkward at dancing version of it), wore a typical traje de flamenca, drank rebujitos, went on a few rides, got churros and chocolate for breakfast one morning at 7am before going to sleep for “the night”, and even got invited to a “disco-caseta” by a member of one the bands.

I also learned that I have a hidden musical talent. The “instrument” is called cañas and it is basically two bamboo sticks that have to be hit together at a certain beat. It is typical in the feria to see people tapping on cañas to the rhythm of sevillanas.

For a taste of SEVILLANAS 

caña(s)

So, thank you feria for being such an amazing experience, again. For now, I’m trying to look forward to other events in the near future to get out of my post feria depression. All good things must come to an end, right??

FIN

El Derbi

I think I have now been to more “subway series” in Sevilla than I have in New York.

Side note:

For those of you non-New Yorkers/non-Americans reading this blog (if there are any of you), the subway series is when the best team in baseball (The New York Yankees, obviously) plays against the other team accessible by the New York City subway, the New York Mets. Upon writing this post, I learned that the original use of this term was for a world series between the two New York teams, but since then has been applied to interleague play.

Last Friday night there was a showdown between the two football teams in Sevilla, Real Betis Balompié and Sevilla Fútbol Club, said by some to be the most violent rivalry in Spanish football, maybe even the whole world. In my retirement from USC Lacrosse, I don’t find myself playing sports much these days, but I still enjoy watching athletic competitions. So I spent the euritos necessary to experience this incredible face-off (more so between the fans than the players) known as the derbi sevillano. I went with a bunch of other Americans who had never been to the derbi before, and we all got into it as though we had been born and raised beticos.

me and Gabi pre-game

Although there are similarities between the derbi and the subway series (two teams from the same city competing in an athletic event) it is really quite a different experience.

For starters, walking through the streets of Seville during a ‘derbi’ is somewhat eerie, like walking through a deserted ghost town. There is virtually no one on the street. Everyone is crowded into bars, or around televisions or computers in their homes. This match is more than just a game between the two teams in Seville. The winner gains bragging rights until the next derbi, and this is very important when it comes to soccer. The Spanish people are very obsessed with soccer, much like Americans are with football or baseball. When people want to find out which team you support, they don’t simply ask, “which team are you a fan of?” but rather eres betico/a or sevillista (roughly translates to are you Betis or are you Seville?). You do not simply support your futbol team; it is a part of your identity.

In New York, almost anyone you ask (who is originally from New York) will say they support either the Mets or the Yankees. There is no middle ground. Although there are many diehard fans, I think it is safe to say the outcome of the subway series is not as significant as the outcome of the derbi here. (Of course, that is because no matter which team wins, the Yankees will always be a better team).

Here in Sevilla, the choice is Sevilla or Betis. No in between.

The last derbi I went to was at the Sevilla stadium, so I had to go in disguise. Unless you sit in the visiting team section, it may actually be life threatening to wear the wrong color in the wrong section. For example, a Betis fan has to wear a red shirt at Sevilla’s stadium to stay alive. The rivalry is so strong that the fans are not even allowed to enter the stadium through the same section. Before the game, when one team sees the other, the taunting begins. And it doesn’t stop.

in disguise at the first derbi

As an American, growing up with different cultural concepts of what children should be exposed to at what age, I would say this is not a good place to bring a young child. But the Sevillanos seem to take the opposite approach. The sooner they learn the importance of supporting their team, and fighting for what they believe in, the better. There are curses thrown around, middle fingers put up (saw a boy of about 8 do that), I even saw one Betis fan pull his pants down and moon the Sevilla fans after Betis scored a goal. People show their support in all different ways: some by doing the sign of the cross, others by throwing chairs when the opposing team scores a goal, others sing lullabies while rocking their newborns to sleep (again the sooner the better when raising a fan). Not a place a child of mine will be until at least his teenage years. But here, for some, football=life.