This is the flamboyant city of Carmen and Don Juan, where bullfighting is still politically correct and where little girls dream of growing up to become flamenco dancers. While Granada has the great Alhambra palace and Cordoba its huge mosque-turned-church, Seville has soul. It’s a wonderful-to-be-alive-in kind of place.
Having just completed my Spain research, I can say that Seville’s peak season for Spaniards is April and May. While Holy Week (Semana Santa) – the week between Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday – is big all over Spain, it’s biggest in Seville. Then two weeks after Easter, after taking enough time off to catch its communal breath, Seville holds its April Fair. This is a celebration of all that’s Andalusian, with plenty of eating, drinking, singing and merry-making.
The April Fair is like a Spanish Oktoberfest – just as rowdy, but more sensual and much bigger. Substitute frothy mugs of beer with sherry spritzers and fragrant pitchers of Sangria; replace cleavage-topped dirndls with fringed shawls swirling atop polka dot dresses, and toss the felt Bavarian hats in favor of crowns of silk flowers. Passion, not oom-pah.
For seven days much of Seville is packed into its vast fairgrounds for a grand party. The fair feels friendly, spontaneous, and genuine. The local passion for horses, flamenco and sherry is clear – riders are ramrod straight, colorfully clad girls ride sidesaddle, and everyone’s drinking spritzers. Women sport outlandish dresses that would look clownish alone but are brilliant en masse. The party goes for literally 24 hours a day for the entire week.
Countless private party tents line the lanes. Each tent is the party zone of a family, club, or association. You need to know someone in the group – or make friends quickly – to get in. Because of the exclusivity, it has a real family affair feeling. In each tent, everyone knows everyone in what seems like a thousand wedding parties being celebrated at the same time.
Any tourist can have a fun and memorable evening by simply crashing the party. Seville’s entire fleet of taxis (who’ll try to charge double) and buses seems dedicated to shuttling people from downtown to the fairgrounds. With the traffic jams, you may be better off hiking down Calle Asuncion – just follow the crowds (there’s no admission charge). Get there before 10 p.m. to see the horses but stay later as the ambience improves after they giddy-up on out.
Some of the larger tents are sponsored by the city and open to the public, but the best action is in the streets, where partygoers from the livelier tents spill out. While private tents have bouncers, everyone is so happy, it’s not tough to strike up an impromptu friendship, become a “special guest,” and be invited in. The drink flows freely and the food is fun and cheap.
If ever you wanted to see Spaniards rejoicing noisily and partying heartily, it’s during the celebrations of Holy Week and April Fair. But anytime of year you visit, you can experience the soul of Seville.
Rick Steves of Edmonds (425-771-8303, www.ricksteves.com), the author of 27 European travel guidebooks including Europe Through the Back Door (published by Avalon), hosts the PBS-TV series Rick Steves’ Europe, airing weeknights at 7 p.m. on Channel 9.
The schedule this week:
Monday, May 24: Cologne
Tuesday, May 25: Alsace and the Champagne country
Wednesday, May 26: The French Alps
Friday, May 28: The Austrian Alps
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