We just happened to fluke being in Sevilla during one of its most important festivals. The festival goes for ten days and started midnight on Saturday. It was originally created as a livestock fair, where farmers and merchants from all over Andalusia would come to Sevilla to sell and trade their animals. However, over time, the fair evolved into a celebration of Andalusian culture, music, and food.
Through a work colleague of Chris’s, we have been invited to their caseta for the afternoon. An invite to a caseta is like:
a) A seat in the Royal Box at Wimbledon for the men’s final, or,
b) A seat in the members stand at the MCG Melbourne for the fifth ashes cricket test between Australia and England, or,
c) A seat in the corporate box at the Calgary Saddledome watching a Stanley cup final between the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers – nope, that is never going to happen in our lifetime!!!
We might be overstating it a bit, but this is going to be a full-on immersive experience.
Getting to the feria is a bit of a logistical feat due to crowds and we are trying to minimize our time in the heat as it is forecast for 27c today.
So, this is what a caseta looks like from the outside. They are very much like a Dr Who tardis. At this years Feira there are 1053 casetas.
The festival is all about dressing up and socializing and we reckon about 90% of the people were dressed in traditional outfits.
Even if they were not in traditional garb, they still dressed up elegantly. We wondered what the Spanish people would think if they went to the Calgary Stampede and saw what they wear there, or we should say what they don’t wear there.
The Spanish are quite conservative and have a very strong family ethic.
The horses were beautifully turned out and the carriages were all pieces of art. The horses actually look like large donkeys, especially with their large ears. We would just be guessing as to how many carriages were there but there were very many.
You can just see the pride that they have in their culture.
Di made the attempt to get into the swing of dressing up🤪
After spending about three hours in the caseta, the boys went off to the bullring whilst the girls took the kids to the fairground section.
Fras said it was packed to the gunnels but luckily for them they had seats on the shady side of the bullring.
We won’t go into into the detail of the bullfighting except to say six bulls lost their lives unnecessarily and their deaths were protracted.
One particular bullfighter who was actually from Lisbon was voted by the crowd as being the best and they gave him the white hanky treatment.
Meantime, back at the fairground, the kids were having a blast whilst poor Di started the throes of gastroenteritis-not a happy chappy. When she went to use the toilet, she discovered there was no toilet paper, so you have to ask this lady who is sitting there with a bog roll for some. She gave me two sheets – WTF! Di indicated she needed more and it was obvious she would have to pay for it, so she gave her a euro and she gave her – 6 sheets. Let’s just say that Di was super happy when we caught a taxi back home.
The boys continued onto midnight. So, all in all an exciting, fun filled and educational day!!
Steps 13,974.
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