feria de abril de Sevilla

After only three days of feria in Seville, my feet were in Spain without the S. I barely know where to start with describing everything I witnessed during the week of feria but I will try my best to explain everything I experienced.

Feria de abril de Sevilla (the April fair in Seville) is a week long celebration that takes place yearly during the last week of April. This year the fair began at midnight (technically Sunday, April 23rd) and it ended at midnight on April 29th. The first night my friends and I walked to feria and spent the first hour or so visiting different casetas. Casetas are like small houses on the inside but they look like tents on the outside. Most families of Seville own their own caseta to drink, eat, listen to music, and socialize in. The only thing about casetas is that you have to know someone who is allowed into the caseta in order for you to get in. Because I made friends with Spanish friends who knew the owners of several casetas, I was able to go in and get the caseta experience of feria.

After having some drinks and socializing in the casetas, my friends and I decided to go to the part of feria where all of the rides were. ALso, just to mention, feria took up a large area of Seville called Los Remedios (I will add a map of feria down below). We went on one ride...and it was the scariest ride of my life. This ride was insane and since my friends and I were all drunk it was even crazier. The ride is meant for you to stand up in and try not to fall or get tossed around. It was a large circle with a long bench lining the circumference of the circular ride; although, there is nothing to hold onto except the bar aboce the benches to keep people from falling out. When this ride started, I had no idea what was going to happen and then it began. When I tell you this ride quite literally tossed my friends and I around the floor for a good five minutes, I truly mean that. It was bouncing us all over the place that I couldn't even stand up to hold onto the bar! Although I might've seen my life flash before my eyes for a second, it was actually pretty fun and it is a funny memory for me now. After this ride we went home because it was already about 4:30am and we wanted to get rest for the next day of feria.

There are a couple different ways to get to feria. You can either walk, take the metro, or ride in a horse-drawn carriage. Firstly, the richer families usually take the carriages to feria. It was actually so amazing to witness this because I remember waking up and walking to the store to grab some supplies for rebujitos (explained in my drinks of Seville blog post) and I saw a couple families riding in their carriages that were pulled by horses decorated in bells and tassles. It was very interesting to watch these families dressed for feria riding carriages in the streets with cars also driving around. It was also intriguing to hear the footsteps and bells of the horses. All of the horses and carriages were unique as well. Secondly, walking is how tourists, visitors of Seville, and families without carriages get to feria. I think it was possible to take a cab or uber to feria actually, but it was probably extremely expensive to do that. Lastly, the metro is a transport option. But, one thing about the metro during feria is that it is absolutely packed full of people. I had friends tell me they tried to get to feria on the metro but they ended up walking there after waiting an hour just to get on but it was so crowded they couldn't ever get on. Walking was definitely the way to go. Despite this, my friends and I decided to try the metro one day and agreed that if it was just impossible that we would walk. We fortunetly were standing right outside of the metro doors so we were able to shove our way onto the second metro that came to the station. Usually on the metro you have to hold onto a bar or handle or sit down because if you don't you will fall over. The metro we got on was so packed with people this day that my friends and I didn't even have to hold on to anything because everyone was smooshed together and basically keeping each other in place. It was also so hot I was dying of heat in there. After a pretty short ride, we made it to the stop we needed to get off on and then walked about ten more minutes to arrive at feria.

During feria women dress up in beautiful, long flamenco dresses and they accessorize with flowers in their hair, big dangly earrings, and heels. The flamenco dress is the traditional clothing for women during feria. They are tight around the waist with ruffles on the sleeves and at the bottom of the dress. The attire for men is a nice suit accompanied by a tie, a suit jacket, and dress shoes. My guy friends in Seville wore nice clothes if they didn't bring a suit here with them but some of them went to Zara and bought a suit and tie and wore that. Because flamenco dresses are so expensive (they can be anywhere from a couple hundred to a thousand euros), I just wore fancy, long, colorful dresses for the three days that I attended.

In the daytime at feria there are lots of horses in the streets, women and men dancing and listening to flamenco, and people drinking in their casetas and on the streets. Additionally, every woman has a handheld fan with them because it is so hot during the day that they need them to cool off.

I spent most of my time of feria at the roller coasters/rides because I absolutely love those kinds of things and casetas were pretty crowded during the day. They were less crowded at night so that is when I enjoyed them most. The music and people were so amazing at night. I only spent three days at feria though because a couple of friends and I booked a trip to ibiza for the other days of feria. I am glad we didn't stay the whole week in Seville because I don't think my feet could have handled that. I wore heels all three days I was there and I had blisters the size of nickels on my toes. Feria is definitely no joke, it is hard to attend every day and night. Some friends of mine who stayed all week said they didn't even go every day. It is common to stay out until six or seven in the morning so it is necessary to get some rest and go the next day instead.

Overall, feria was a fun time filled with lots of laughs and good times. It was an amazing cultural experience. If you want to read about my Ibiza trip, go check out my blog post about it! :)