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Spring Festival in Seville - Feria de Abril de Sevilla

Every year in April, the spring festival known as the Feria de Abril de Sevilla takes place in Seville, the capital of Andalusia, Spain. It usually begins 2 weeks after the Semana Santa procession, typical of Easter in all Catholic countries in Europe including Latvia. The festival lasts a full week, brimming with joyfulness, music, dancing, treats, performances, a festive parade, and a fairground. This year it takes place from 24 to 29 April.

Every year in April, the spring festival known as the Feria de Abril de Sevilla takes place in Seville, the capital of Andalusia, Spain. It usually begins 2 weeks after the Semana Santa procession, typical of Easter in all Catholic countries in Europe including Latvia. The festival lasts a full week, brimming with joyfulness, music, dancing, treats, performances, a festive parade, and a fairground. This year it takes place from 24 to 29 April.

Seville (Sevilla) is a city in the south of Spain on the banks of the Guadalquivir river. The cultural, artistic, and financial centre of southern Spain. Seville is famous for flamenco dance and music. It is also the birthplace of one of the most popular flamenco dances - sevillanas, which is also an integral part of the Feria de Abril.

History of the Feria de Abril de Sevilla

The event was held for the first time on 18 April 1847. It was organised by two councillors - the Basque José María Ybarra and the Catalan Narciso Bonaplata - with the consent of Queen Isabel II. At the time the event had a commercial character, positioned as a livestock fair, but over the years the festival grew ever more popular and became a folk spring celebration.

By around 1920 the festival had reached the scale and grandeur we can observe today. For Seville's residents, participation in the festival has become almost obligatory - for a full week more than a thousand booths, called casetas, in the festival grounds become their second homes, where people meet, dance, and make merry until dawn.

Officially the festival begins at midnight on Monday with the so-called lighting ceremony, when countless light bulbs and coloured lights in various combinations are switched on across the festival grounds and at the nearly fifty-metre-tall gates. The booths, stalls, and canopies (both public and private) at the festival grounds are the places where during the feria the celebrations take place - there friends, relatives, and guests will meet, wine will be drunk and the local traditional cuisine sampled, and there will be singing and dancing.

What happens at the Feria de Abril?

Dressing up. During the festival many people wear traditional Andalusian folk costumes. Men dress in traje corto - short, bolero-type jackets, tight trousers, and boots, and also wear hats called cordobes; women wear faralaes or trajes de flamenca - magnificent flamenco-style dresses, abundant in colours and ruffles.

Dancing, singing, music-making. From nine in the evening right through to six or seven the following morning, dancing and singing to flamenco rhythms takes place in the canopies and tents right there on the streets of Seville. The popular sevillanas can be heard throughout.

Horse rides and rides in decorated carriages. During the daytime the grounds are also filled with many riders on horseback, as well as grandly decorated carriages. In the so-called Paseo de Caballos, visitors who have the opportunity to hire a carriage with a coachman may also take part.

Culinary delights. Traditional Spanish tapas, sherry, and Spanish wines are of course not absent. Also sold are the many sweets characteristic of Seville - polvorones, mantecados, pestiños, Roscos fritos, magdalenas, yemas de San Leandro, Tortas de Aceite.

Bullfighting. The corrida is yet another attraction of the festival. The Plaza de la Maestranza arena is visited by large crowds every day to watch this spectacle. Bear in mind that tickets for the fights must be purchased separately and preferably well in advance.