Sevilla Preference? Semana Santa or Feria de Abril
Jul 22nd, 2007, 08:42 PM
#21
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Thanks all. We are mulling over the options nothing set.
I do dance Sevillanas Hanl so id we ever meet up I will dance with you.
How scary for you to be lost at 2 A.M
Did you just stay up till daybreak?
I do dance Sevillanas Hanl so id we ever meet up I will dance with you.
How scary for you to be lost at 2 A.M
Did you just stay up till daybreak?
Jul 22nd, 2007, 10:06 PM
#22
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Ah, if you dance sevillanas then you must go to the Feria!! 
(Just make sure you agree on somewhere to meet up with your companions in case you get separated!)
When I was lost there on my own, I wandered around for a couple of hours and eventually bumped into a friend of a friend who was living in Seville, and kindly let me stay on his sofa!!! (the friends I got separated from had the keys to our accommodation). Found my friends again the next day...
(Just make sure you agree on somewhere to meet up with your companions in case you get separated!)When I was lost there on my own, I wandered around for a couple of hours and eventually bumped into a friend of a friend who was living in Seville, and kindly let me stay on his sofa!!! (the friends I got separated from had the keys to our accommodation). Found my friends again the next day...
Jul 23rd, 2007, 06:48 AM
#24
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My vote is for... Malaga. One of the most spectacular features of the Holy Week in Malaga is that the floats are simply monumental and can weigh up to six tons. They are made to house velvet and gold drapes which reach up to some nine metres and cover the "Dolorosa" (statues). The sheer size of the floats means that they cannot enter through the churches and therefore have to be assembled in the street. More than a hundred young men support each one. The "Virgen de las Penas" (Virgen of Sorrow) is not dressed in the traditional velvet robe but instead clad with natural flowers comprising more than twenty thousand carnations.
Jul 23rd, 2007, 05:54 PM
#25
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Thanks Revulgo that is the kind of little known info I was looking for.....I appreciate it.
We are toying with April We did not go to Zamora (Carbajales & Aliste) in May this year for a number of reasons but that is my grandparents'hometown and was considering that too for Semana Santa. What do you think of that idea?
Also I am a "Flamenca" at heart so the feria is something I should have seen 20 years ago but never did. But really sevillanas is not flamenco as you know, it is fun.
I always look forward to your comentarios. ams
We are toying with April We did not go to Zamora (Carbajales & Aliste) in May this year for a number of reasons but that is my grandparents'hometown and was considering that too for Semana Santa. What do you think of that idea?
Also I am a "Flamenca" at heart so the feria is something I should have seen 20 years ago but never did. But really sevillanas is not flamenco as you know, it is fun.
I always look forward to your comentarios. ams
Jul 23rd, 2007, 11:13 PM
#26
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I never been to Sevilla during Feria because everyone has told me that is a closed party with tents (casetas) hosted by aristocratic families for invitation-only affairs. If you don't know people in Sevilla can only walk through the feria feeling the atmosphere or enter into one overcrowded public tent.
Jul 24th, 2007, 12:45 AM
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Wife's sister-in-law belongs to a group in Madrid who dance Sevillanas and who make the Romeria al Rocio every year. The Procession from Sevilla is mostly on donkey carts, on horseback and just caminando & bailando las Sevillanas and various other 'gypsy' dances. So, amsdon, you should fit in nicely with that milieu.
I like the smaller Semana Santa events like one encounters in Huelva or Jerez de la frontera; and you can watch more on TVE in the air conditioned comfort of your hotel.
I like the smaller Semana Santa events like one encounters in Huelva or Jerez de la frontera; and you can watch more on TVE in the air conditioned comfort of your hotel.
Jul 24th, 2007, 01:07 AM
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Hi Ana,
we spent last year´s Holy Week in Cordoba, from Palms Sunday to Easter Sunday. One of the days we went to Sevilla on a day trip and we were able to watch a couple of processions, but I found that Cordoba was more intimist and nearer to the people. It also helped that we were staying at the hotel Maimonides and we had a corner room, from which we could watch all of the processions we weren´t following in the streets. We didn´t ask for the room, it was offered to us seeing that we were staying for the whole week.
It was a great week. We managed to visit a lot of places during the day, and Cordoba has some absolutely amazing settings (the Cristo de los Faroles, for example). The little kids playing with the discarded wax, the very, very good bands, the people crying because it was raining and they couldn´t go out with their virgins, the Foreign Legion carrying the Christ (as in Malaga, a place mentioned by Revulgo and on my to-do list), the changing of the "costaleros" ...
Personally, I feel that Holy Week can give you more of a sense of belonging, and it has still a festive feeling to it (I think I have never eat so many sunflower seeds in my life). I think that the Feria de Abril will be stunning to look at, but difficult to get into. During the Holy Week in Cordoba we spoke with many people and everybody shared tips of the best "pasos", the best places to look at them ...
Nevertheless, I think that one year I will get a good seat near La Campana in Sevilla to watch "La Madrugá" (paying a lot, I know), go down there with the AVE from Madrid, stay awak the whole night, and return home sometime around noon completely wrecked, but quite happy.
Do you mean Bercianos de Aliste when you say Aliste in Zamora? In that case we are talking very, very different things to the usual Holy Week in Andalucia, and it is absolutely impressive. I have only seen in pictures (the impressive ones by Cristina Garcia Rodero come to mind right now), but I have a friend who has been there, and says it is different. I would really think seriously of going. You could maybe combine it with other places in Castilla-Leon, such as Zamora or Valladolid.
Rgds, Cova
we spent last year´s Holy Week in Cordoba, from Palms Sunday to Easter Sunday. One of the days we went to Sevilla on a day trip and we were able to watch a couple of processions, but I found that Cordoba was more intimist and nearer to the people. It also helped that we were staying at the hotel Maimonides and we had a corner room, from which we could watch all of the processions we weren´t following in the streets. We didn´t ask for the room, it was offered to us seeing that we were staying for the whole week.
It was a great week. We managed to visit a lot of places during the day, and Cordoba has some absolutely amazing settings (the Cristo de los Faroles, for example). The little kids playing with the discarded wax, the very, very good bands, the people crying because it was raining and they couldn´t go out with their virgins, the Foreign Legion carrying the Christ (as in Malaga, a place mentioned by Revulgo and on my to-do list), the changing of the "costaleros" ...
Personally, I feel that Holy Week can give you more of a sense of belonging, and it has still a festive feeling to it (I think I have never eat so many sunflower seeds in my life). I think that the Feria de Abril will be stunning to look at, but difficult to get into. During the Holy Week in Cordoba we spoke with many people and everybody shared tips of the best "pasos", the best places to look at them ...
Nevertheless, I think that one year I will get a good seat near La Campana in Sevilla to watch "La Madrugá" (paying a lot, I know), go down there with the AVE from Madrid, stay awak the whole night, and return home sometime around noon completely wrecked, but quite happy.
Do you mean Bercianos de Aliste when you say Aliste in Zamora? In that case we are talking very, very different things to the usual Holy Week in Andalucia, and it is absolutely impressive. I have only seen in pictures (the impressive ones by Cristina Garcia Rodero come to mind right now), but I have a friend who has been there, and says it is different. I would really think seriously of going. You could maybe combine it with other places in Castilla-Leon, such as Zamora or Valladolid.
Rgds, Cova
Jul 24th, 2007, 06:36 AM
#29
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Thanks guys this is great stuff!
Cova, my grandfather was from Carbajales and my grandmother Cerezal de Aliste but they are both gone now so I am getting the info from my uncle who has been there a few times but has a bad memory. I don't want to wait too long there may not be too many of the old timers left to speak with.
Ned I would love the info on the group.
Is it a club you say? I unfortunately do not fit into my Sevillana dress now that I am of "that age" but anyway it would be a blast to see! I get a bit carried away and never get tired of that (poor DH! )
Revulgo I know the casetas are private and the public ones very crowded, but I hope to see Feria at least once in my life. I have many dancer friends in US who are not all that hot on Feria...
Ned suggested Jerez or Juelva that is another thought. I have an old aquintance I have not seen in years in Jerez, Maria Bemudez, who now lives there. BTW if anyone is looking for an accomplished flamenco teacher who also speaks Englsih here is her website www.mariabermudez.com. She's a girl from East Los Angeles who lived the dream & now lives & dances full time in Jerez..sigh...
Thanks again all I love the information!
Cova, my grandfather was from Carbajales and my grandmother Cerezal de Aliste but they are both gone now so I am getting the info from my uncle who has been there a few times but has a bad memory. I don't want to wait too long there may not be too many of the old timers left to speak with.
Ned I would love the info on the group.
Is it a club you say? I unfortunately do not fit into my Sevillana dress now that I am of "that age" but anyway it would be a blast to see! I get a bit carried away and never get tired of that (poor DH! )
Revulgo I know the casetas are private and the public ones very crowded, but I hope to see Feria at least once in my life. I have many dancer friends in US who are not all that hot on Feria...
Ned suggested Jerez or Juelva that is another thought. I have an old aquintance I have not seen in years in Jerez, Maria Bemudez, who now lives there. BTW if anyone is looking for an accomplished flamenco teacher who also speaks Englsih here is her website www.mariabermudez.com. She's a girl from East Los Angeles who lived the dream & now lives & dances full time in Jerez..sigh...
Thanks again all I love the information!
Jul 24th, 2007, 07:00 AM
#30
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amsdon writes: "Ned I would love the info on the group.
Is it a club you say? I unfortunately do not fit into my Sevillana dress now that I am of "that age" but anyway it would be a blast to see! ... "
Maybe you could find a seamstress (modista) who could 'let it out' for you.
It is a club; she lives in Leganes (Madrid) and because it's a ladies' thing, I can't provide the info you request.
cova: What a stroke of luck to have a room overlooking the Processions in Cordoba. In Sevilla, Cantaores de Flamenco sing to la Macarena from the Balcones. Were you able to watch from a Balcon adorned with a Manton de Manila? Did you or any of your group sing to the Virgen??
Is it a club you say? I unfortunately do not fit into my Sevillana dress now that I am of "that age" but anyway it would be a blast to see! ... "
Maybe you could find a seamstress (modista) who could 'let it out' for you.
It is a club; she lives in Leganes (Madrid) and because it's a ladies' thing, I can't provide the info you request.
cova: What a stroke of luck to have a room overlooking the Processions in Cordoba. In Sevilla, Cantaores de Flamenco sing to la Macarena from the Balcones. Were you able to watch from a Balcon adorned with a Manton de Manila? Did you or any of your group sing to the Virgen??
Jul 24th, 2007, 07:10 AM
#31
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Ned: The dress would need a little more alterations than a "little" letting out. The irony is I am now at the age where I can truly interpret w/ deep emotion (some call it duende) life's twists and turns, but the body is too out of shape to do any such intrepreting through dance, (at least in public)
How wonderful that you have seen & hear the saetas. That is what I want to hear in person.
How wonderful that you have seen & hear the saetas. That is what I want to hear in person.
Jul 25th, 2007, 02:41 PM
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amsdon writes: "How wonderful that you have seen & hear the saetas. That is what I want to hear in person."
I didn't see/hear them in Cordoba; It was near el Portal de la Macarena in Sevilla as the Procession returned from its overnight trek. The Cantaor was on a Balcon about 200m east of the Basilica (on the Procession route).
I didn't see/hear them in Cordoba; It was near el Portal de la Macarena in Sevilla as the Procession returned from its overnight trek. The Cantaor was on a Balcon about 200m east of the Basilica (on the Procession route).
Jul 26th, 2007, 02:47 PM
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amsdon writes: "Ned how lucky you were to be in Sevilla then for that."
The Procession of la Macarena and Cristo de Gran Poder leaves the Basilica de la Macarena around midnight, goes downtown to the Cathedral and back to its starting point around 11:00AM. When it ends, the Nazarenos fill the taverns and consume large quantities of CruzCampo
The Procession of la Macarena and Cristo de Gran Poder leaves the Basilica de la Macarena around midnight, goes downtown to the Cathedral and back to its starting point around 11:00AM. When it ends, the Nazarenos fill the taverns and consume large quantities of CruzCampo
Jul 27th, 2007, 11:01 AM
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I have never visited Spain during the feria as when I've posed the "Semana Santa versus feria" question to my spanish friends they all recommend Semana Santa. My first (and supposedly once in a lifetime) Semana Santa was in 2003 so this year was my fifth year in a row. I always visit Sevilla because it is THE place for Semana Santa. However, Sevilla is very crowded, the hotel prices skyrocket and it is not as intimate as smaller cities. I have read that the procesionals in Cordoba, Jerez, Granada and Malaga are very nice. However, I will let you know my secret. I love Cadiz. It is my favorite place to visit for Semana Santa. It's surrounded by water and a great based for daytrips to Sanlucar, El Puerto de Santa Maria, Arcos de la Frontera and some of the other white villages, Jerez, etc.... During Semana Santa it is much easier to see processionals up close and to see them go through the narrow streets of Cadiz is incredible. Every year when I first return from my Semana Santa trip, I vow to try a different set of cities the next year. A few months later, Sevilla and Cadiz are beckoning and I'm making reservations again! Which reminds me, if you want to visit during Semana Santa or feria and you want a specific hotel or a central location, you'll definately need to book far in advance.
