March 19 is the feast of St José, patron saint of la Herradura and also Father’s Day in Spain. This is the most important festival in the town’s calendar with the streets cleared and traffic diversions put in place last week allowing for the fairground rides, pop up stalls and street lights to be set up. The official start was on Saturday, the day we went to Malaga for the new windscreen, but we returned in time to go to the flamenco show presented by Bev’s teacher Geno Rodriguez.
Although the schools and shops were closed on Monday and Tuesday Steve continued at the workshop where they didn’t take a break but Bev wandered the streets to find processions, competitions and other events going on around the town. There was a procession with flamenco guitars, cajon and singers to lay flowers at the parish church, Parroquia de San José, just up the street from Stephen Hill’s workshop. There was also a traditional ‘ribbon run’ on Calle Real. This involved cyclists attempting to snatch a ribbon from a cord stretched across the quite steep hill – all accompanied by the excellent Charanga ‘Llena que nos vas’ band. A huge black Madonna with three ‘big heads’ were also part of the procession. Sadly, the camera was playing up, so there’s a lack of good photos or video for now . . .
On Monday night the firework display on the beach exceeded our expectations – certainly as good, if not better than the Illuminations in Matlock Bath! We didn’t join the all night party up at the castle, but could hear it whilst trying to sleep in the van! On Tuesday we were invited to join neighbours at the campsite for a birthday party, a fairly international gathering with English, Dutch, Italian, Danish, German and Americans amongst the guests from vans around the site.