La Feria de Abril

If Andalusia satisfies a lot of stereotypes about Spain and its people (bullfighting, Flamenco dancing, wine drinking, nap taking), Feria de Abril does most of the work. Feria is a week-long party that takes place on a huge stretch of land in Los Remedios (my neighborhood!) that is empty for most of the year--in fact, the only thing that takes place there is Feria.

During Feria,most women dress up in traditional Flamenco garb,

called trajes de gitana, or gypsy dresses!

The partying--which includes a lot of drinking, a lot of live music, and above all, a lot of dancing Sevillanas--occurs in casetas (tents) owned and operated by businesses, families, or public organizations such as sports teams and political parties. The most charming casetas (and the one with the lowest food/drink prices) are private. This means you have to either get a paper invitation or belong to a family that is well-known in that caseta. Luckily for us, we were able to get into a number of private casetas: my host father Paco gave me two admit-two tickets to his, and a friend of mine's host family certified that we would be able to enter theirs. Most of the casetas we entered were divided into two rooms: one with tables, chairs, and a stage, where people could eat and watch/dance Sevillanas, and another with a bar and empty space for people that wanted a more casual dancing environment. A few casetas also had spaces set up for live bands.

At the mouth of the Feria grounds is la portada, a giant gate designed and constructed anew every year. I believe that I mentioned in a previous post that it is right at the end of one of the main streets in Los Remedios, down which I walk every day on my way home from school. It was cool watching its development, and the final product was quite impressive. This year the gate was celebrating 100 years of flight, which is why there is a model plane hanging in the top of the figure 8.

The gate is also the city's motto: see the NO8DO?

Feria is, in one word, overwhelming. The lively music in every caseta and the excited shouts of thousands of Sevillanos cause quite a din, while the colorful lanterns and brightly patterned dresses make for a kaleidoscopic landscape. The only sense that suffers is the olfactory: the smell of horse droppings mixed with alcohol and fried food was unpleasant. Feria is also exhausting: you spend a lot of time on your feet, and you essentially become nocturnal, spending 11 pm to 6 am at the Feria grounds and sleeping until 2 in the afternoon. At least, that's what my friends and I did most of the week. People are really at Feria all day because there is always something exciting going on. The Feria grounds contain a huge amusement park and during the afternoons traditionally-dressed horsemen gallop or pull carriages through the streets (hence, the smell). Some gal pals and I spent only one afternoon at the Feria grounds. We rode a very tall ferris wheel, which was a little scary but also fun! We had a great view of the hundreds of casetas and the horse-drawn carriages trotting through the streets.

Those are jingle bells on the horses' faces. Poor things, the sound probably drove them nuts,

but as fast as they ran from it, they couldn't escape it!

As fun as Feria was, it didn't sadden me too deeply to return to a normal, more restful schedule at the end of the week. True, getting used to waking up at 8:30 for class was killer, but I'm really awful at staying up until 6 am!