The Start of La Feria

The entrance and masses of people

Tonight, at midnight (or I guess you could technically say it was this morning), la feria de abril began! I had no idea what to expect when I went to see "el alumbrado" tonight, which is just when they light up the entrance to feria and marks its beginning at midnight on the monday of the week of feria (which is normally in April, but this year is only the 2nd time in history that it occurs in May!). To be completely honest, I wasn't impressed at all by the lighting, but once we got inside, thanks to Vicky's ability to weave through the crowd, I was amazed by how many casetas (basically tents, which I will explain later) and people there were inside... and that there was an amusement park and food stands just like any other fair in the U.S. too.

Vicky and I inside feria!

Our new Turkish friends, Vicky, Ryan, Kelsey and I

Some adorable little girls all dressed up!

Based off of the information that I was given before feria, I was under the impression that there would just be rows and rows of casetas... no amusement park or food stands or anything else. Before going, we were also warned that there are "private" and "public" casetas, and that the private ones are better than the public ones, but you can only enter them if you know someone. The majority of the hundreds of casetas are private, while the rest are "public", supported/paid for by the government, including political party casetas and neighborhood ones. We were told to stay away from/be careful in the public ones, especially at night, because this is where things "sometimes get violent/rough".We unintentionally steered clear of any public ones tonight, and Vicky and I also actually managed to get into a private one so that she could use the bathroom! (which I'm assuming is kind of a big deal..?)

Inside a private caseta (thanks to Vicky's weak bladder haha)

While some people still decided to wear flamencowear tonight, the majority of people were dressed more casually--I chose to wear jeans, boots and a nicer blouse/collared shirt, as my host mom had said that if she had been going tonight, she would be wearing a nice shirt and jeans because it's "not a big deal". After walking inside a little and realizing how overpriced everything was, we decided to walk out of feria and down the street to a little cafe for Alex and Kate to get churros con chocolate...which didn't end up being any cheaper since they decided to hike up their prices for feria! After they finished, we all decided to head home since we figured we would go back during the day and night tomorrow. Overall, I think the lighting of feria was not all that it was hyped up to be, but I am still very excited to party and dance there this week!