Fiesta 2003
| We've moved to Loony Land! It was Fiesta here in July and they were really nuts this year!!!!!!!
Thursday was the first night. That wasn't too bad with a theater performance of a farce and a bit of music - bed by 2 am. |
|
 |
One of the marching bands going past our door. |
| Friday - we went to work and came back to join iin the disco. They had a foam machine and the entire street from Chipi Chic to Bar Chelo (now Cafeteria Joaquin to Bar Gloria) was covered in foam. Alice and James were the tallest in the crowd, so they were the main targets and they loved it!!!!!! I went to bed at 3:45 am, I have no idea what time anyone else turned in. | |
 |
Easy targets!!!! |
| Saturday started well with free bouncy castles, mechanical bull riding, a 'train' around the village and free beer. We went to work and left Alice and James here. When we got back they were sitting on the street with the dog and a couple of local kids who had been playing with them for a few hours. | |
 |
Alice has the dog lead in her right hand. Turkesa is on the end of it, somewhere! |
| We were informed that we ought to move our cars as there would be fireworks in the street at about 5 am and it could be dangerous. Well!!!!! Talk about no sleep all night. There was a live group on until 3:30 am (ish). Alice and James went out to watch. Pete's leg was playing him up so he went to bed and I sat on the roof with a bottle of wine and a pack of cards (sad or what!). About 3:30 I went to bed - no sign of Alice or James. At 5:05 I got up as there were almighty bangs, flashes of light and the dog was doing her nut. I have no way to describe what went on!!!! There were fireworks being set off mainly between 'The Old Man's Bar' and the stage at Chipi Chics. These fireworks weren't attached to anything, they were being thrown and boy, did they travel. Imagine a Catherine Wheel not attached to anything but flying willy-nilly through the air - that's what it was like. Then some joker came down our road with bangers ( the loudest one was the one he lit underneath the bin outside our window. The dog LOVED that one!) and the fireworks were thrown down after him. James and Alice were in with the 'lighters' of the fireworks, laughing and jumping through them all. | |
 |
Get the idea? It's a shame I couldn't capture the noise and smell too. |
Eventually they came in at 6:50 am wanting to know what happened next. After talking them out of going to the beach all day for a picnic, we decided that the next thing to happen would be people blowing something (my Spanish couldn't translate the instrument) and drums coming down the streets at 7:00am. They decided to stay up. I gave in and went to bed. BUT, at 8:10 it sounded like an Arabian tale with this pipe being blown and a drum beating time. |
|
 |
A firework has just been lit outside our front door at 8am. On either side of the photo you can see the drummers. The bloke in the white tee-shirt was playing the pipe. |
| They went past our house to the end of the street. As Alice and James had gone to bed I thought I ought to take a photo of what they were missing so I went to the front door and stood behind it with the top glass open so I could take a photo whilst the dog looked through the bottom bit and had a minor fit at the noise. Talk about a major mistake! They saw me with the camera and immediately started to shout for me to go on the street and take a pic (I had a sarong on - not a pretty sight at that time of the morning after only a few hours' sleep!). Once I had taken a photo they started banging the drum and blowing this instrument that sounded like a snake charmer's pipe and shouting 'Peter, Peter' until he came out to have his photo taken. | |
 |
Here we are! We had no choice but to give up the camera if we ever intended having any peace again. They lit 4 bangers whilst they were having the photo taken |
As I write this (2:40 pm) James isn't awake to ask if he heard them, but Alice said she heard the noise and turned over and went to sleep again. Only 2 more nights to get through. Sunday was fairly quiet, considering the rowdy start to it! Not a lot happened during the day, but in the evening it was the solemn procession. This involves the effigy of Santa Carmen being brought out of the church and paraded through the village on the shoulders of 12 of the locals. Other villagers accompany her with lit candles on either side, and a band leads the way with another band at the rear. It took about half an hour for the procession to make its way through the village and then we had the firework display. The display was lit in an empty field that's behind the houses opposite us and it was a great show. We were sitting outside Bar Chelo (surprise, surprise!) but the dog wasn't too upset when we got in. We'd left the entire house open for her so she could decide where she felt safest. After the display there was a live group on, who weren't that good, so Pete and I headed for home at about 1am, knowing that the main day was going to be on Monday. Alice and James rolled in at 4ish, having nearly bought out the entire stock of bangers (fireworks, not sausages) and having a firework fight with some of the local kids. Monday morning started with a trip into Orihuela for me and Pete to do some essential supermarket shopping, but we were back by 10 am. No sign of either of the kids! We had a walk through the village where the bouncy castles were being re-inflated and a beer stall was being set up. |
|
 |
Waiting outside 'The Old Man's' Pub for the procession to start. The long white things hanging up at the back are candles. |
After a coffee in Chelo's we went back to the house for an hour before going out again to see what was happening. This time Alice and James had managed to raise themselves and came with us. We got as far as the butcher's shop on the corner before we were stopped and given a bottle of beer. Then we went up to where the beer stand was and were supplied with larger, Fanta, aniseed and water. Whilst we were there, there was a tremendous commotion going on at the end of the road, just outside 'The Old Man's Pub'. A load of locals had got themselves some reflective jackets and on the back had got sticky-tape letters saying 'Politia'. That is only one letter different from the word for police, 'Policia'. It seems they had stopped a poor motorist who was innocently driving through the village and demanded to see his papers. He produced them and they then told him he was going to have to be searched. He got out of his car and stood with his hands on the roof whilst they prepared to body search him. The game was given away at this point when one of the 'police' told him he would have to drop his trousers for the search!!!! Hence the uproar as he realised he'd been had! |
|
 |
If ever you get stopped by a policeman wearing denim shorts, be suspicious! The white powder on the road is chalk to prevent slips on the melted candlewax from the previous nights' procession. |
We saw them stop a young girl on a moped to take her name, address and telephone number as one of the 'police' wanted a date! You had to be there - one of the 'police' was the local priest! The paella pan arrived and that was set up outside the bank this year, a much safer option than last year when they set it in the middle of the main road! |
|
 |
The photo speaks for itslef! |
| We headed into Chelo's for a jug of beer. As we were finishing it another two arrived - we still don't know where from. Then saardines were passed around and the 'police' came in for a sing-song. We don't know what the songs were, but they were certainly rowdy enough to be Spanish rugby songs! | |
 |
Inside Bar Chelo (now Bar Gloria). The usual suspects! |
| We were just on the point of leaving to have a wander around when Chelo's husband, Paco, asked Pete if we could bring our musical equipment over as the person they had booked had let them down. What could we say! | |
 |
It's early in the day. This is only the second jug of beer. It was downhill all the way from here..... |
| So, after about 10 mins carrying the gear over and setting up off we went. It was mostly rock and roll that we did as they wanted to dance, but one man wanted 'It's Now or Never' by Elveeese. So, off we went. The only problem was that Pete didn't know the words so he made them up! We had a verse about buying cheese, how steep the hill is to climb up and the terrible way the Spanish drive - they didn't have a clue what was being sung! We had beer, lamb, sardines, paella; everything you could ever want was there for us and then Paco asked us how much we wanted for playing! (We didn't take anything!) | |
 |
Oh dear, the jug's empty. But the paella was excellent. |
| The locals then took over the bar for a singing and dancing session. We were having a great time watching them all, and then they decided that Alice should join in. She was pulled into the middle of the crowd and had to dance along with them! She was so embarrassed!!!!! | |
 |
Poor Alice! She didn't have a choice, she HAD to join in. At least that jug of beer went to a good cause. |
The procession in the evening wasn't as good as last years. The best bit was the American Football Team (who looked suspiciously like the 'Police') who were all dressed up with the overpadded shoulders and the ball. Somebody changed the ball for a melon and you should have seen the mess it made when it was kicked into the crowd! The night was finished off with another live group, who were excellent. But all the groups played the same songs, and it wasn't unusual for the same song to be done 3 times in a night. Easy money or what! Alice and James both had a ball. They spent the end of last night sitting outside our garage talking to the local kids. I noticed the dictionary had been taken out! James got up at 4:45 this afternoon and his greeting was "there's nothing going on now is there? It's all finished isn't it?" I think once a year is enough for us all! Hopefully the bangers have all been used up now and we can have a few nights' peace again. And next year we'll be able to do it all again…….. |
|
A photo of the nearby Embalsa at Bigastro taken at sunset.