The Main Event - the Spring Ferrier in Seville
It was always intended to be the crescendo of the Andalusia adventure and Seville didn’t let us down. Not only was it hot hot hot (over 35 degrees some afternoons which was a bit too hot tbh) but Seville is also very beautiful and atmospheric even on an ordinary day I suspect. But our visit was more than an ‘ordinary day’ as it was also timed to coincide with the Spring Feria (or Fair) which is basically one long party mainly for Sevillians, which is really rather cool but more of that in a minute.
Each year the gate is decorated in a new style and lit up at night - it creates quite an entrance!
We also had an extra special treat of our eldest daughter visiting us for the week so we got to experience the whole thing with her. And a double extra treat was my niece from USA Kirby also currently doing a semester of her University degree in Seville so we got to meet up with her and some of her friends too. Some wise old soul once said something like ‘Your children are not your children they’re just lent to you while they’re young’ so to have Rosie come and spend some of her holiday with us and party with Kirby too was truly a special thing. It’s so lovely to share our adventure with others and especially family. The only downside being that we are blue for a day or too after they go home or we move on!
But back to the week. Melle had wanted to go to the Seville Fayre ever since she knew it existed and this is why. The Seville Fayre is principally for Sevillians. This is a really great thing both because it makes you feel like a special guest at a really important party. We had heard that visitors / tourists can be made to feel unwelcome but that definitely wasn’t our experience. All week we had seen families dressed up to the nines having wedding style drinks and lunches across the city centre before they went to the fair. Many of them also hire one of the many hundreds of splendiferous horse drawn carriages to display themselves around the city before they are taken to the main event at the Fayre ground in Los Remedios. In clarification let me also explain that one of the principle things about the Seville Spring Fayre are the casetas which are special tents where food and drink are consumed and dancing and partying take place. And most of the casetas are private affairs hosted by local people for their friends and family - to celebrate the start of spring which is always two weeks after Easter. Fortunately for us there are one or two public casetas but mostly the event is for Sevillians. They dress up very smartly - senoritas in the most colourful flaminco dresses and the senors in smart suit and tie. It’s a massive occasion and when I say occasion it actually goes on through the night every night for a week. We went on Monday morning at the start when it was quiet to get ourselves acquainted and then again on Wednesday night for the main event when apparently there are normally about one million people present! I know, it’s a staggering event and the very fact that it is so important to local people and the community is one of the most special things. Following advice we made a bit of an effort to dress appropriately for the event - to show respect and to join in and we were lucky enough to be allowed in a small public cassitas where we were encouraged to try some local tapas and a variety of very sweet sherry and lemonade drinks and we also had a little go at the dancing. We also went to a larger casetas which probably had about 500 people. There are hundreds more casetas lining the specially created streets of the fair which are named after famous bullfighters. Of course, for the two weeks around the fair there are many bullfights at the local bullring in the city centre.
Melle and Rosie joining in with the traditional dancing….
……and how it is done.
The horses and carriages are like something from a royal wedding or Downton Abbey 😀
The other thing that’s rather cool about the Fayre is that the people of Seville are called Sevillians which in my mind makes them sound very civilised - perhaps that’s one of the reasons why they are very civilised. All week we were treated very kindly and enthusiastically which was another real treat about visiting the city. I have a feeling we will be back…….
This blog was written by Chris
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