April 19th-24th, Sevilla transforms just like the weather into a springtime paradise during their celebration of Feria. This week long celebration is held to welcome in the spring time to their beautiful city as well as to showcase their elaborate flamenco dresses, impress each other with their casetas and parade around in Andalusian style in horse drawn carriages and traditional Spanish attire. Monday night at midnight, this huge monument at the end of Calle Asunción (parallel to my street) is lit up and Feria officially begins! Everyone comes out to see the lighting of Feria and afterwards, proceeds to dance, drink and have a good time all night. We explored the fairgrounds, had some gofres con chocolate (basically a waffle covered in melted chocolate) rode on a carnival ride and then walked back through the casetas. Casetas are private tents owned by families, or a group of friends, or a business that cost around 2,000 euros just to rent the land space for the week of Feria. The tents vary in size, but even the smallest can hold up to 50 people. Even though I describe them as tents, they are like little house/restaurants. Each one hires their own bartender and caterer and the entire casesta is lavishly decorated. Tuesday afternoon Elisa, our program director, invited us to her family’s caseta. It was a smaller one, but that is even better because it is more exclusive. You have to be invited or be family to get into a caseta, so for a foreigner to be able to experience the inside of one is rare! The flamenco dresses were one of my favorite parts of Feria. So colorful and beautiful, with ever last accessory matching perfectly! These women and young girls spend months looking for their dress, and the rule is you buy a new one every year and wear it for the first two days, then you can wear older ones if you want. The nicer flamenco dresses cost around 1000-2000 euros! Another great aspect of Feria is the typical drink, rebujito! It is like a white wine spritzer, but most Spaniards drink it with a white cherry mixed with a soda like sprite or 7-UP. Because Feria is literally a 24/7 week long celebration, something is always happening. I liked going around lunch time because that is when most of the people are just coming in from a long night out and taking a quick nap before going back out, so my friends and I were able to walk around, admire Flamenco dresses and see the horse parades and carriages. The last night of Feria was one of my favorites. Everyone got together at the bridge one down from mine and at midnight Sunday, they had a huge fireworks show over the river! They were so close and beautiful, and I am so lucky to have such great amigos to share my first Feria with! One day I will go back and wear one of the beautiful Flamenco dresses myself!
No comments:
Post a Comment