l'Olleria en Festes

It is now time for the fiestas in our village. As I write this, we are not quite certain what is happening when! There is a tannoy system in town, where the local news is read out over a speaker, but we can’t hear it from here. (Unless the wind is in the right direction, but then it is muffled – and it’s in Valenciano anyway!)

We do know that the Fiestas were officially opened on Friday night, with a big party, and massive fireworks. We were told that they would be lit at 10pm, but they also went off at 12:00 and again at 12:40. We could see them from the house, so we didn’t go in to town.

On Saturday, was the main ‘fiesta’, so we went down to investigate. It was rather odd, seeing the whole of the high street cut off from traffic, and lined with an assortment of garden and household chairs, for everyone to sit on. Trying to figure it out, we asked a random family ‘que passer?’ – what’s happening? To my amusement, she said – there’s a fiesta (I had figured that out!) I asked what time it starts and she replied midnight! Oh boy, another late night.

We went for a drink (or 4) and some tapas (Spanish snacks) and then at 11:30, went back to the high street. There were still loads of empty spaces, but we found a wall to sit on. (We spotted our neighbour too and waved!) At 11:50, the spectators suddenly appeared from everywhere. I don’t know where they hide, but they only come out when something is about to start!

At midnight, the parade begins. For Fiesta, read ‘parade’, for, apart from a few fireworks, we didn’t see anything else happen! That said, the parade was very impressive. There were floats of one sort or another, mostly dressed up tractors or small trucks, and accompanying groups. The first group appeared to be something to do with the countryside – the girls wore wellies and colourful mac’s and danced with umbrellas! Each group also had it’s own band marching behind. Because of this, there was quite a big gap between each group!

After the dancing ‘land army’ came an assortment of; waitresses; Robinson Crusoe and some shipwrecked people; cowgirls and Indians; prisoners and policemen; as well as loads of others. It took 2 hours for the entire parade to pass. (There also seemed to be a very high number of men, dressed as women, which seemed rather odd. Personally, I think it had something to do with the late hour, and the copious amounts of ‘falling down water’ that had evidently been consumed.)

Excellent evening – and all for free