Malaga Feria August 23, 2007
Posted by Administrator in : kraziness, málaka , 1 comment so farMálaga´s Feria took place all last week, a time for fun in Picasso´s city of birth. Ladies wear traditional dresses, music is everywhere and the typical verdiales dance can be seen on the streets.
There are two main areas of Feria activity, from lunch time to the evening everything happens in Málaga’s historical city center. Calle Larios is beautifully decorated and leads you to wonderful tapas and drinks. Celebration is in the air, Cartojal sweet wine is drunk all day, made out of the moscatel grape and served chilled it combats August temperatures perfectly.
The other main area of Feria week is outside the city in El Real de la Feria at Cortijo Torres, this gets going in the evening to avoid summer heat. There´s plenty of family fun with all sorts of rides for the kids as well as concerts and djs at the many different booths or casetas which are set up and keep going all night long.
The week of Feria always starts with a bang! Fireworks on Malagueta beach and a concert to get things going, naturally closing night on Sunday features a big name artist and the Monday after is still holiday in Málaga city so people can recover from their week of fiesta.
On the opening Saturday I went into the city to join in an anti bull fighting march combined with Hare Krishna harinam. A very interesting cocktail with surprising results since people were in a very open minded mood and therefore more willing to chant and sing with the devotees.
The summer festivities in the city have their roots in the commemoration of the incorporation of Malaga to the Castilian crown of the Catholic Monarchs, who made their triumphal entrance into the city on 19th August 1487.
In 1491, coinciding with the religious celebrations of the Cathedral Chapter, the Municipal Town Council decreed the establishment of popular festivities, which that year began on 15th August.
It was in 1887, with celebration of the 400th anniversary of the Catholic Monarchs’ entrance into Malaga, that these festivities regained their initial splendour. Malaga’s August Fair has come to the present day as a Grand Summer Fair that is open, cosmopolitan and international, all of this reflecting the character of the capital of Eurotourism: the City of Malaga as the key centre of the Costa del Sol and its metropolitan area.