Feria de Sevilla

When?

In the long weekend of the 1st of May, having no plans, but with one day of holiday planned.

Where?

I went to Seville.

Why?

Irresistible invitation from my friend, Jarel! Free accommodation in a friend’s house. The date coinciding with Feria (big market) de Seville.

How?

A new personal car record from Almeirim to Lisboa to catch the bus. A stressful purchase of the ticket and a calm trip of 5 hours during the night.

Who?

Me and Jarek, the tourists:



Kasia and Alberto the host couple:

Some months ago I wrote a post about Seville (click here to read), so in this post I won’t write much about the city and the tourist hotspots. Only to describe the environment of this party so popular in Spain.

So what’s Feria en Sevilla? (Portuguese tourist point of view)

In the past was mainly an agricultural exposition, to promote, sale and trade agriculture goods and services. Horses or pigs, tractors or pesticides, and much more.

Nowadays, as the majority of the European cities, Seville saw his farmers leaving the fields and to work in services and in tourism. There is still some business going on, but it’s mainly horses.

Feria today is hundreds of tends (casetas) in a outdoor market with free entrance, where people drink, dance and live the Spanish optimistic style of life. Of course, it’s open 24 hours per day non stop, but only at night the rhythm becomes stronger! The tends can change from a small one selling beer and snacks, to an huge caseta with doormens at door selecting people and where is possible to eat really good food and expensive wines for free.

Companies, OMG’s or private persons, pay an annual quota for having the right to explore one caseta, depending on the location of the space and the size of it.

Gorgeous women, with the latest fashion, and the typical Sevilhana suit. Men with hair pulled back full of gel, dark suit and colorful tie.

And here they go! Dancing, singing, and clapping! Castanholas clapping and someone say: “Óole!! A lot of eating. Even more drinking! Outside young kids with their bottles with home made mixed drinks, inside the casetas the popular Manzanilla (white wine weak with soda). As locals explained to me, the wine is weak so that people manage to dance and drink so many hours without falling in coma.

Thanks to the local contact, we entered several casetas and between laughter and a lot of new friendships, we felt all the energy of this people, so similar and so different from the Portuguese.

It was like this:

What is concerned to music, only Spanish is passing and if foreigners don’t know someone and no Spanish speaking, it becomes very hard to have access to the party.

The Portuguese always try to speak the language of the tourist, the Spanish only speaks español. “In Rome, be Roman”!

Is it right? Fair? Who is correct? Maybe something in between Portugal and Spain would be the ideal… (but i would never get use to see a Simpsons episode translated to Spanish)…

As the nights were long, the mornings were to sleep and there was few time to walk the town. Anyway, that wasn’t the objective; cause wasn’t the first visit to anybody. In spite that we still visited Alcazar de los Reyes, the old palace that was and still is the official royal family house when visiting the city. Similar, but in smaller dimensions, I liked more the Alcazar of Córdoba.

The dimension of Seville’s alcazar is impressive, not for the salons, but for the gardens, fountains, patios, green labyrinths. With the high temperatures that go all year around in Seville is hard to imagine the labor force and the tons of water to maintain such an exuberant green! Was hard to choose only 2 photos:

Of course i had to write about bullfighting. One afternoon, me and Jarek in the company of my regular Seville guide, Rosana, we went for a happy “Rally Tapas”. Mixing with beers and tapas, she took us to the bullfighting arena when it was about to start the main event.

UAU! Amazing atmosphere! Thousands of people at the entrance. Some waiting for friends before getting in, others to interview or to see the VIP’s and others, like us, were only to take a look around.

The best suit, the new dress, the strong makeup, the VIPS arrive in wagons pulled by horses. The gentleman help madams on getting out, and at the same time a camera man records the moment in a camera for a direct show on TV. Young ladies distribute pamphlets with the show program, the brave men that will face the beasts, the purity and power of the bulls. The cheapest tickets cost 100€, the most expensive I don’t know…

Don’t feel like investing in a ticket for the bullfighting? No problem! All over town a lot of restaurants and bars have live transmission of what’s going on the arena!



No Jarek… you don’t have what it takes! He hehe!

What a couple of short days i passed there! Great long nights of partying! VIVA Sevilla!

But it was the fact that we stayed in a house just around the corner of the cathedral and the fantastic hospitality of Alberto and Kasia that made this visit unique!

Let me tell you about the view from the terrace! Superb! It was a privilege to watch the fireworks from the city roofs, just behind the cathedral… Priceless!

For all this, I have no doubts that Seville is the Spanish city that gathers the most international Latin icons: sun, bulls and toreros, siesta, saints, sevillanas and castanolas, tango, tapas and cañas… a few more photos of the beauty of this city: