Friday 13 April 2012

Sevilla April Fair - La Feria de Abril - Popular Festival in Spain

 
Sevilla April Fair
La Feria de Abril, is Seville’s most popular party of the year. Seville, in southwestern Spain, has celebrated its weeklong April Fair since 1847. It is the festival that presents a true picture of a vibrant and colourful Spain. Perfect for those who love Flamenco and parading on horseback.The weeklong festival runs from April 24-29, and includes traditional dress, parades, dancing, and, unfortunately, bull-fighting spectacles. Throughout the festivities, people wear typical Andalusian clothing: Men wear the typical outfit of the farm worker, and women wear flamenco or gypsy dresses.

Visitors can look forward to a parade of horses and decorated carriages, bullfights, flamenco dancing and singing, and delicious street food. A fireworks display caps off the week.

La Feria de Abril
La Feria de Abril takes place two weeks after the colossal celebration of the Holy Week in Sevilla, (Semana Santa en Sevilla). This tradition started back in August 25 of 1846, when the authorization to make the fair in the city was requested and granted to be organized each 19, 20 and 21 of April, each year since 1847. Its success ever since has made it change places more than three times over its history and more days had to be added at people´s request.

Nowadays the fair officially starts on Monday with the Dining of Fish (or “La cena del pesca’ito”), and the parade in which the major lightens the way to the fair announcing its start at midnight.

La Feria de Abril
On Tuesday, all friends and colleagues are reunited to organize breakfast and the illumination is kept until three am the next day. On Wednesday, the most important day of the fair, the lights are kept for an hour longer, and one more hour on Thursday, the fair starts to get even more crowded until, on Friday, it reaches around a million attendants, including many famous people and the royalty.

On Saturday, the second most crowded day of the fair; the lights are kept until six in the morning. And on Sunday, the last day of the fair, they bring the finest bulls of its kind to finally end the fair with a set of fireworks at midnight.

La feria de Abril is one of the most popular parties in the city and one of the most famous in Spain.

La Feria de Abril
The event venue, Real de la Feria, just outside the city center, hosts over 1,000 marquees often with flamenco performances, bars, and music. Daily parade processions include beautiful local women in full flamenco outfit and horse-drawn carriages. This festival attracts thousands of tourists every year and hotels book quickly, so reserve your space now and head to Seville’s warm retreat for this colorful and exciting party.

La Feria de Abril in Seville: When - April 24 - 29

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