Fiesta Andaluza in Valencia
Last weekend, we went to the Feria de Abril festivities being held in the Turia riverbed by the Puente de Calatrava.
Feria de Abril is a hugely popular festival in Andalusia — particularly Sevilla. Being party people, the large population of Andalusians in Valencia have set up a mini-fiesta for themselves. We went during lunchtime, when not much was going on, and it was like stepping into a David Lynch movie…
Feria de Abril – The Lost Screenplay
Foreigners enter a tent, looking for lunch. Extremely loud flamenco music plays over a scratchy speaker. On a stage in the background, a woman dances with a child.
A waitress wearing a polka-dot dress and a mountain of make-up takes their order, blowing her cigarette smoke into their faces. The camera pans around the tent, revealing many other waitresses, all identically dressed and all of them smoking … in unison.
Outside the tent, in an otherwise empty plaza of sand & dust, a girl in traditional dress is riding a horse with a boy who might be her brother. Or not…
Large, fat men in drag enter the tent. They dance on the stage, then exit as mysteriously as they entered.
Meanwhile, a small, round, and mentally handicapped man has appeared. He’s intently watching the girl riding the horse. There’s something vaguely sinister about him.
Seriously, that sounds like a movie I want to watch!
The tent was full, and we were the only foreigners — so I think we got a good taste of real Andalusian culture. And it tasted weird!