The weekend of 30th September and 1st October we had beautiful weather for the revived Fería de Los Raimundos, which had last been held quite a few years before.
It was an especially exciting fiesta for me, as it was in the village that I am regional mayoress of.
On the Saturday it started with the mock jousting, which you may remember me mentioning seeing in the Antas fiesta, where the contestants rode on bikes, trying to remove a ribbon from a rope stretched across their path. Well, in Los Raimundos the test was even more interesting, as the contestants rode on a donkey to remove the ribbon!
At 9pm the mayor of Antas and myself went up onto the stage for the speeches. First Pedro spoke, saying how wonderful it was to revive the fiesta, and how important it was to remember the heritage of the village and to maintain its traditions .
Then it was my turn. I started by repeating Pedro’s speech in English, as that is really my job as regional mayoress, to be the English speaking “go-between”. After that I added a few words of my own, finishing with “Let the fun begin .... Happy Fiesta everyone!”
The rest of the evening I spent speaking to the Los Raimundos and Los Chopos residents, while the music and dancing went on, which it did until 5am in the morning! But I had been asleep in my bed for many hours before that!
Sunday was just as exciting. There was a longbow archery competition, a card game called “brisca”, which is apparently similar to bridge, without trumps and games for the children., such as a sack race. The prizes for the competitions were handed out, then the afternoon entertainment started.
A huge paella was cooked, for everyone to enjoy, with a generous plateful costing only 2 euros. The afternoon’s entertainment was a juggler who amused the crowd whilst the main event was setting up on the stage. When the juggler finished the acrobats delighted the audience with their act.
Although only a small village, Los Raimundos had a spectacular fiesta, and we are already looking forward to next year’s !
Add comment
Comments