With Spring arriving in Rota, that means one thing to the locals: it's finally Feria Season!
Feria, or "fair," started in the Middle Ages as a way to ring in the warmer weather and promote more trade across the southern region of Spain. This custom has grown into giant fairs across Andalucia, where women adorn flamenco dresses and men deck out in suits for a few days of fun!
Wednesday, May 1: Feria Dress Shopping
With all the traveling and substitute teaching, Feria snuck up on me. The minute Meghan returned from the States, we got together for one mission: find a Feria dress for the upcoming weekend festivities.
Some of my friends had tried shopping for flamenco dresses the week prior and said the formal attire started at €300 and went into the thousands... knowing that was well out of my budget for a weekend getup, I did some research. Thanks to the many Navy Facebook groups here in Rota, I learned that the Wednesday Gypsy market had feria dresses for a reasonable price, so Meghan and I started there!
And we hit the jackpot! Meghan and I both left with dresses; I actually got two! And the best part? They were €58 apiece and were made from a slightly stretchy material, making them much more comfortable than other styles for long days and nights at the fairgrounds!
Peluqueria y Modas Rizo
With our dresses in tow, we headed to downtown Rota to find the accessories. The full flamenco dress includes a giant flores (flower) for your hair, a mantones (shawl) for your shoulders, a decorative pin to keep your mantones from falling off, and a pair of bold earrings! We were able to complete this shopping all in one stop!
Thursday, May 2: Feria Night One
With our full attire ready, Meghan and I were so excited for the festivities to begin! It took us an embarrassing amount of time to figure out how to properly pin our mantones, but by 7 pm we were dressed and ready for our practice run of Rota's feria!
Bryan had it easy; guys get to wear dress pants and a button-up shirt to match the elegance of the flamenco formal wear. But I have to admit, he does look good!
Then we were off to Rota's feria! Luckily we live a short 15-minute walk from the feria grounds, so we avoided the chaotic parking situation. Upon arrival, we wandered the main strip for a few minutes before choosing one of the many casetas to begin our evening!
Feria is split between two areas- the first is the casetas, or tents, which are filled with food, drinks, music, and dancing! The second part consists of standard fair rides and games; picture the Wayne County Fair plus an area of huge tents for partying, and you have a good picture of what Ferias are like across Southern Spain!
It's not a true Feria without a pitcher of Rebujito, so we started off our caseta journey with two pitchers of the sherry/white wine/lemon soda mixture to share. We should have known something was up when the bartender handed us two straws instead of three glasses when we ordered two pitchers... As we sat and took in the Feria atmosphere, we realized that all the locals carried around a pitcher of this classic Feria drink with a straw in it for easy sipping. Yep- the Spanish don't drink Rebujito by the glass, it's by the pitcher!
As the night wore on, we ran into May! You may remember May from the sunflower adventure when I first moved to Rota! May is passionate about the Feria season; so much so that she even went to a Feria fashion show in Jerez at the start of the season to get a dress! Commitment, I tell 'ya!
As the sun went down, the party was just picking up! We spent some time walking around, drinking some freshly- made mojitos from a local booth and then scouting out the fun casetas we wanted to check out over the rest of the weekend!
For our first day at Feria, I was happy to get a little taste of the fun! But the fun is just beginning!
Friday, May 3: Feria Horse Show & Tent Partying
Friday started like all Fridays: Bryan went to work at the hospital and I headed off to Rota Elementary for a full day of substitute teaching. Our day continued when RJ, Aidan, and Jaime met at our house for Feria! Since it was Aidan's birthday, we figured a night of Feria celebration was the perfect way for her to ring in year 30! Day two of the festivities called for dress #2!
Escuela Municipal De Hípica Francisco
Friday's main event was the horse show, so we hurried to the Equestrian Show at 7:30 pm. As we arrived, we realized we should have gotten here earlier... it was packed! Lucky for us, some of the nurses at the hospital had front-row seats and allowed us to sit on the wall in front of them!
While I don't know much about horses, I do know southern Spain is famous for the Andelucian horse breed. These horses were beautiful. While it wasn't the most exciting show of my life, it was a cool experience and a great way to start our Feria evening!
Here's a little clip of these horses in action:
By the end of the horse show, we were all starving so we followed our noses to the pizza caseta! Just look at it, it didn't disappoint!
As our evening continued, the sun started going down, meaning the lights came on, and thus, photo time!
Our night continued as we bounced from tent-to-tent to dance, drink and party with the locals! Some casetas played Spanish pop music, others were playing the top hits from the States, and others were a nice mix of the two. Bryan and I had a wonderful night of laughs around the Feria grounds, with a pitcher of rebujito or a giant mojito in hand, alongside great friends!
Our big night at Feria ended with the locals around 3 am. It was a long night and an early morning, but totally worth it for the memories!
Saturday, May 3: Feria During the Day
After a long night at Feria we had a slower start to Saturday but nothing was stopping us from soaking in the full expereience. We were up and dressed back in full Feria attire by 2 pm so we could make it to the Flamenco performances at the fairgrounds!
I won't lie, we thought these Flamenco performances were going to be professional, but it was instead a flamenco class recital. Meghan and I agreed we are adding "take a flamenco class" to our Rota bucket list! Maybe we will be performing next year! (ha!)
We did learn that daytime Feria is much slower and family-friendly when compared to the nightlife of Feria. With the sun high in the sky, we enjoyed walking around and seeing the casetas during the day!
My favorite find of the day: a sombrero cordobes! This true Spanish hat completes Bryan's Feria look and makes him look just like the caballeros (cowboys) from the horse show yesterday! He may have felt a little awkward trying them on, but after some hype talk from Meghan, Bryan was giddy to wear his new sombrero cordobes around town!
The other part of Feria is the fair rides! Since we were visiting during the slower daytime hours, we enjoyed walking around (with a mojito in hand) and seeing all the fuss! We even ran into CAPT Bleile and CAPT Yun, two of the dentists Bryan works with at the hospital, with their kids! They were in line for "Pirata," the swinging pirate ship ride.
In Spain's version of this famous ride, there are cages at the ends for you to stand and hold on! Kids were even jumping inside the cages... Never in America!
Another day at Feria means more posing and photos with the portada (entryway arch) at the main entrance to the Feria grounds.
Our "short" daytime trip to Feria turned into a sunset beach walk home. Meghan had the great idea of stopping along the way home to snap a few photos at the beach and, I have to say, they turned out great!
While this ends our three-day Rota Feria, we still have the Jerez Feria next weekend and the Puerto Feria festivities in June to look forward to! So consider this the first run at the Southern Spain custom of springtime Ferias, because there is still more to come!
--Katie
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