Feria's

Throughout the summer Spain is full of festive activities, known as feria's. As the village I live in is small, the feria only takes place over three days, whereas city feria's will take place all week. Although the feria is small it still manages to pack the week end full of different events.

On Friday morning the committee will set off rockets that let everyone in the village know the feria is starting. Not much usually occurs on the Friday but at night our village always has different Flamenco singers in the square that sing throughout the night.

Flamenco singer.

Something tells me this man had had enough of the Flamenco...

On Saturday people will gather in the village's centre around 2pm for Paella. While it is being cooked the committee hand out plates of meat and cheese for people to nibble on, along with  wine and beer.

Enormous Paella

Later on in the day is the Cintas. Cintas is one of a feria's popular events. It involves people cantering up to the line and trying to get the Cintas of the line with a toothpick. And the person who has the most Cintas at the end wins a prize. In English it is known as a belt race. When this tradition started it were only single people that could participate. The women would write their name on a Cinta and the man that got it would later have to go and talk to them. So it was a way for single people to meet other single people. So it’s sort of like online dating but without the internet. :)

Carreras de Cintas.

On sunday there is the Veridiales, the foam party and the procession followed by fireworks. The Verdiales is also found at many Feria's. It usually takes place in the afternoon after everyone has eaten and is now relaxing. It is also typical Spanish dance and music.

Panda de Verdiales.

Panda de Verdiales de Los Romanes.

The foam party is great for people of all ages. It may sounds childish, but it always has people from the age of 3 (or younger) up to 80 (or older).

Finally we have the procession which is where they get the "Virgen de Milagrosa" out of her home and take her for a walk around the village. (It's some sort of religious thing, but as I am not religious I have never quite understood the point of it...) In Spain every village has their own saint, so this will occur at any feria you go to. This is followed by fireworks which is usually why I go in the first place :)

This was my attempt at taking a photo of a firework. Turns out I'd changed
 the settings... Not quite what I expected, but I do sort of like the result too :)

I love this photo of the firework because it looks like pixie dust.