This weekend was the turn of the Spanish to party. A marquee was erected in the square and the banger man was set to fire rocket bangers every 5 minutes, which are still going now. The bangers got annoying pretty quickly.

The festival is for the Senora de la Rabida - my 2 dictionaries don't provide an exact translation for Rabida, the nearest I could get was rage or rabies, I was quite tickled by the idea of a festival for the 'rabid senora'. Anyone who has a better translation (Ashton?) feel free to correct me!

The first parade through the streets began on Saturday at 1pm. A small crowd began to gather outside the church, men in suits, ladies in their finery. I felt very underdressed in my shorts and t-shirt and especially in the shoe department. I was expecting a few sprained ankles by the end of the parade as most of the route was over cobbles.


Regulation fiesta footwear for the ladies

A sound of drums and a regular clacking sound began to come from out of the church, a few minutes later the dancers appeared. They moved through a complex set of steps, up and down the street, going backwards and forwards, weaving around each other and under each others arms all the time joined in a single line by floral dividers held in their hands.


The dancers

Also in their hands were castanets which provided the clacking rhythm to the dance. A man provided the main tune to the dance playing both a drum and whistle at the same time.


Drum and whistle

After dancing for a few minutes they moved back up the church steps and all bowed down low to the floor - at which point the float carrying the senora left the church.


The senora atop her float

A man began to thron confetti from the church tower and the dancers turned and began to move down the road, the float following and a band taking up the rear.


Throwing confetti


Love the goth trumpet

We all walked along with the parade, the crowd having been swelled by the rest of the village residents who had been inside the church. Every couple of 100m or so the float would pause and the dancers would twist and turn before bowing down in front of the float and shouting out (sort of an olé shout). The float then moved on again and the band played along with some jolly tunes.


Dancers and the senora

When we reached the marquee the parade rested for a while. The dancers legged it into the marquee bar for a quick pint. Must be thirsty work that dancing but they didn't get long to rest as 5 minutes later the parade moved off again on it's circuit around the village.


Quick pint for the dancers


The senora waits (she looks a bit grumpy) whilst the dancers get refreshment

In the evening the music entertainment began. The first band didn't start until 11pm so we passed some time in a bar with the now quite sozzled men of the village and the ladies still tottering around on their huge heels. We only caught the end of the first band and then the second one arrived in a very theatrical way with light show and the Phantom of the Opera music playing. In the singers swept with capes and gowns and launched into a Spanish version of the song. Then followed the Titanic song (in Spanish) and then the Circle of Life from the Lion King (also in Spanish). More Spanish songs followed but we didn't recognise any of them. Then a third band, young guys with some great sounding guitar and good tunes but we still didn't recognise any. The rest of the now full marquee obviously did as they were singing along. So we left them to it and went back to the boats, I'm sure the party went on for many more hours.

And so it was repeated on Sunday (we went for a 12km walk instead) with the final parade going on just as a write. For a small village they put a lot into their fiesta!