La Feria de Abril...orrrr Mayo?

Every year, Sevilla has what is called La Feria de Abril (April Fair).  It's always 2 weeks after Easter so since Easter was so late this year, Feria actually fell on the beginning of May, this past week.  Every city in Andalucia (the southern region of Spain in which Sevilla is the capital of) has their own Feria, but they don't all take place at the same time.

But this is not your typical fair.  Oh no.  This is a fair done Spanish style, which basically means much more spectacular, extravagant, and cultural.  It is an entire week-long festival that takes place at the end of Los Remedios (which just so happens to be the neighborhood I live in.  How convenient!).  The Sevillanos look forward to this week every year because everybody gets off of work and school (yes, I got off of school for an entire week just for this huge party!  I love Spain.) to gather with their friends and family to drink, eat, and be merry.  In fact, all shops close for good for the day once it's siesta time.  Which was annoying for me because everytime I needed water, the supermarket was closed!

The core part of Feria is the casetas, or tents.  Hundreds of casetas lined the streets back-to-back.  Each one was lavishly decorated with lanterns, tables, a bar, dance floor, kitchen (to make the tapas!), streamers, lights, and a lot of them even had live bands!  Although all casetas are public in the other cities, Sevilla chooses to be exclusive and 80% are privately owned, which means you need a ticket to enter.  They are usually owned by families, companies, or other social groups.  The other 20% are public casetas, owned by political parties or other organizations that choose to be nice and open up their caseta to us outsiders who didn't get invited to a private one.  The public ones, although not nearly as clean or nice as the private ones, were still a lot of fun.

The outside of some casetas.

My favorite part about Feria was how festive and cultural it was.  You really can't get any more Spanish than Feria.  Women swarmed the streets in their traditional flamenco dresses, hair pieces, shawls, flowers, etc.  Many of the men were dressed in their finest suits.  Horse and carriages were clopping through the streets of Feria as well as all over the streets of Seville.  They were driven by men in traditional wear as well.  It was like I was taken in a time machine to a different world.  The ultimate Spanish world.

It amazed me that every Spaniard and their mother seemed to know The Sevillano, the traditional dance that is performed by everybody in each caseta and out on the streets during Feria.  My teachers tried teaching us during our classes before Feria. But a total of 2 hours is not nearly enough time compared to the years of practice you need to get this dance down.  Many girls go to actual Sevillano dance classes while they are younger!  It is a very difficult dance, but is beautiful to watch.

Dancing in the streets.

Another aspect of Feria is the typical drink called Rebujito.  It is a mixture of manzanilla (like a sherry) and sprite.  Walking down the streets of Feria, you'll see everyone holding a glass of it!  It's delicious, but causes really bad hangovers and headaches.

Feria also had it's own amusement park!  It was called Hell Street.  It was much more extravagant than the St. Dennis Fair that I'm used to at home.  There were several roller coasters, 2 ferris wheels, 2 sets of bumper cars, and tons of other rides, game booths, and food stands.  My friends and I went on what looked like the "slower" ferris wheel.  But it was much faster than any ferris wheel I've been on!  Then Cassie and I went on the bumper cars.  They were so scary.  There are no rules.  You can go any direction you want, turn around whenever you want, there's not island in the center.  My first experience heading towards a guy that was driving towards me head-on was terrifying.  It was a lot of fun, but I got a bruise on my knee from how chaotic these bumper cars were.  I thought I was going to die.  We discovered that night that all Spanish rides are much faster and much less safe than any ride we've ever been on!

View from the top of the ferris wheel.  All of the lights are the streets of Feria.  It's huge!

INSANE bumper cars.

Another tradition of Feria is that it begins and ends with lights.  It begins monday night at midnight with the lighting of the portada (the entrance into Feria).  Then it ends sunday night at midnight with a fireworks display over the river.  I was able to watch it from the bridge that connects Plaza de Cuba to Centro (the bridge I cross to get to the center of town).

Lighting of the Portada

Fireworks sunday night

I loved how lively and traditional Feria was, but the number of people made me dislike it a little bit.  It was packed with people!  I didn't go as often as I wanted to because the crowds were such a turn-off.  But one night in particular that I did go was a lot of fun.  Lindsey and I met up with her intercambio, Dani, his girlfriend, Claudia, and a few of their friends.  We got into their private caseta, drank a lottt of rebujito, Claudia tried to teach me the Sevillano, and we snuck into another private caseta that wasn't theirs!  It was a very fun night and it was cool to experience Feria the way the Spaniards do.



Brittany, Megan, Lindsey and I enjoying Feria during the daytime :)

Feria at night!