Feria 4/20 – 4/25

My program had a second ‘spring break’ week with no classes to celebrate the Feria de Abril in Sevilla. Feria used to be a celebration centered around cattle auctioning and everyone from the country would come into the city all dressed up for the occasion but today it has lost that original purpose and stands as a celebration of the city of Sevilla. There is no real purpose or intent other than to celebrate everything it means to be a Sevillano in the city that they love. The women all dress up in traditional style flamenco dresses of every shape and color complete with enormous matching earrings, hair combs and the biggest flowers I have ever seen directly on top of their heads. If the men are riding their horses into town or driving a horse-drawn carriage they dress up in traditional ‘cowboy’ clothes, and if not they put on their best suit.
The fair grounds are located in ‘los remedios’, which is a neighborhood just outside of the city center. Here rich families and businesses own ‘casetas’ which are little tents that are completely furnished as houses with floors, tables and chairs, bathrooms and a kitchen in the back. For the week of Feria this is the families house, and they entertain guests all day and night. If you are invited into a private tent they will take care of you, paying for all of your food and drink. An entire, classy tent city goes up for Feria complete with street signs and addresses. The streets are lined with lights and colored paper decorations.
Manzanilla, a very strong white wine, is the traditional drink of Feria, and in recent years people have started mixing it with 7-up to make rebujitos. These are dangerous things because they taste good and dilute the taste of the wine so it’s really easy to drink a few too many. We were well warned by all of our professors and host families but there were many hilarious rebujito-related stories to be told among the CIEE kids after Feria was over.
Like I said, Feria is all about celebrating Sevillan culture. The people come together to eat, drink, and above all, dance. The Sevillana is a style of flamenco dancing that originated and is still performed in Sevilla. Everybody knows how to do it and Feria is where they show it off. Every caseta has some sort of music playing, live bands or recordings, and everyone there is dancing with each other. It’s a beautiful dance and especially impressive with the women in their brightly colored, ruffled flamenco dresses and killer heels. I really don’t know how these Spanish women do it; my friends and I wore heels out to one night of Feria and ended up sitting on the curb before limping home to bed.
Feria is a cultural celebration but it is a very private celebration. There are a few tents open to the public but the majority of the celebrating goes on inside the casetas. My friends and I got into a private company caseta, which was less cool than a family caseta but still quite the experience.