Tag Archives: Fiesta

Spain

Fireworks contest in Alicante

There is a week-long fireworks competition in Alicante every year. It is called ” LXXI Concurso de focs artificials” and begins the night after the Fogueres de Sant Joan festival ends. They are set off at midnight down on the beach area of Alicante.  We headed down to the beach area and walked along the breakwater pier. We found a perfect spot to watch the fireworks on the pier.

The first night we watched the fireworks from the pier, they had a mishap about half way through the fireworks. Part of the system fell and launched their fireworks into the beach sand. We could see the fireworks hitting the beach sand and then just glowing. This went on for about 5 minutes. Then the fireworks began to go up into the sky again. It was fairly windy and the fireworks display was hindered by the strong winds.

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view of misfiring fireworks on the beach

The second night we attended the fireworks, it was a lot better. We managed to get the same viewing area and the fireworks were excellent.

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view of fireworks from the  pier in Alicante

We could hear the crashing of the waves against the pier and the thunder of the fireworks in the sky. It was very enjoyable.

The below video if of the finally of the fireworks one of the nights.

https://youtu.be/HpHASmroZvc

“Adios y que tenga un gran dia”

Spain

The week of the Hogueras de San Juan Fiesta

This week has been very busy and exciting for anyone living or visiting Alicante. The fiesta Hogueras de San Juan is a week-long fiesta with music, fogueres, dances, food and fun. We have been trying to take in as much of the fiesta as possible.

The street parties were set up in almost every neighbourhood. The block parties were fenced in and most of them had an ornate gate made for the fiesta. Below are a few of the “gates” for the block party entrances.

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Entrance to one of the block parties
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Entrance to block party
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Entrance to block party

We headed out each day to take part in some of the fiesta activities. We have put together some of the highlights of the week activities below.

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Fogueres of the 2016 Alicante fiesta

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Images of Fiesta in Alicante
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Fogueres and crowds of the fiesta

There were block parties every night and music until the early morning hours. Fireworks and firecrackers were a continues activity.   People were gathered in large crowds enjoying the fiesta and the different events. We came across numerous bands that would walk throughout the city playing music. The video below is an example of  only one of the talented groups wandering through the city playing music.

https://youtu.be/FdP4tqoQ3Vo

We saw amazing fogueres and displays that were both artistic and creative. There were parades that took place all week. We attended some of the parades and enjoyed seeing the traditional clothing and listening to the music. They even had a “Nanos y Gegants” parade, which was very enjoyable. People put on large paper-mache heads  and walk through the streets. There are main characters which are very large approximately 18 feet high that promenade through the streets. They stop along the way and dance and twirl to music.

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Large head parade
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18 feet high characters in the parade

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People sing and walk along the parade and encourage other people to take part. It was neat to watch them in the parade.

https://youtu.be/8YkKQUirs4E

“Adios y que tenga un gran dia”

Spain

Burning of the fogueres

At midnight on June 24th, the Fogueres de Sant Joan celebrates the “Crema” which is burning of the fogueres. The first foguere that is burnt is at the Ayuntamiento de Alicante (City Hall). A very large group of people gather at the Ayuntamiento de Alicante to wait for the official start which is the fireworks launched from the Castillo de Santa Bárbara in a palm tree design.

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crowd gathering at city hall for the crema

It was so crowded that we were not able to get close enough to see the foguere at city hall, which is approximately 4 storeys high and very beautiful.

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City hall foguere before it was burnt

We worked our way to the next foguere which was just around the corner from city hall. There was a large crowd there as well, but we managed to see most of the foguere being burnt.

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Foguere before it was burnt

https://youtu.be/MYgz7cIXu7o

Large crowds of people party and follow the  bomberos throughout the entire city.  Each foguere is loaded up with fireworks and then set off to start the foguere on fire. We followed a few of the fogueres on the way home but the crowds were too big to see the foguere on fire. We decided to head home and wait for the burning of our local foguere.

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Shelley and Ray at the local foguere in their neighbourhood at 3 a.m.

Shortly after 4 a.m. the bomberos arrived and our local foguere was set on fire. The video below captured the burning of our local foguere at 4 a.m.

https://youtu.be/pmUetDD5RfE

It was a very busy and interesting week. The festival is the biggest one of the year and attracts thousands of people. We are glad we were here to enjoy it.

“adios y que tengo un gran dia”

 

Spain

Fogueres festival

We continue to walk throughout the city looking at the fogueres that are on display in different barrios. On Tuesday, we headed to another area of the city to scout out the fogueres.

Our first stop was at the local park area which is north of us. We arrived to see a massive foguere on display in the centre of the park.

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Foguere in park 3 storeys high

There was an interesting theme to this foguere. The characters were representing the people involved in the making of the festival in some way.  As we looked at the foguere you could see that they were making light of certain organisations involved in the festival.

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The main organisers of the festival were characterised.

They made fun of the bomberos (Firefighters) with caricatures representing them. Note the enforcement bombero with the measuring tape.

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Bombero with measuring tape making sure the distance is right

Then there is the physically fit bombero setting off fireworks.

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Bomberos the Alicante foguere

They also had caricatures of the music with fireworks.

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Caricatures of the fireworks in the festival

There was also the history of the Alicante region done through fogueres. They started with man discovering fire and working up through time to the future of the Foguere festival.

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Foguere of discovery of fire by man
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History of Lucerum Romans who lived in Alicante
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Moores live in Alicante and build the Castillo of Santa Barbara
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Fireworks tradition is started in Alicante
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Future of fireworks in Alicante

The fogueres were very well done and had an excellent theme.

“Adios y que tenga un gran dia”

Spain

Starting to tour the fogueres

The fogueres are now being constructed and the judging starts in a few days. We went to the tourism bureau and picked up a map with all the locations of the Fogueres. There are 89 fogueres in total this year. Ray mapped out a plan and we are going to try to see all of them.

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Ray with map of the fogueres

Monday morning we headed out to see the fogueres. Each location has both a children’s foguere and an adult foguere for that particular neighbourhood. The first barrio we came to was Jose Antonio. This barrio has been doing the fogueres for sixty years. They celebrated by incorporating the 60 year anniversary into their foguere.

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Front view of the foguere which is approximately 3 storeys high
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The base of the foguere has the 60 anniversary noted
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Back side of the foguere with all-seeing eye

The Children’s foguere was also impressive with several key features including a dragon and witches brew.

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Childrens foguere in the Barrio Jose Antonio

The rear side of the foguere was also well done with a pumpkin, books and little creatures.

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Monday we walked and saw a total of 19 different barrios. The fogueres at each one of them was very unique. The amount of work and dedication it takes to do these fogueres is truly an amazing thing. The colours are extremely vibrant and the details of the figures in the fogueres are extremely well done.

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foguere in Alicante waterfront area
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Three storeys high foguere in centre of street intersection

Some of the fogueres had a specific theme or had a sarcastic message.

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A foguere with advertising built into the theme with some sarcasm

The sign roughly translates to “how to put together your Swedish hoguera.”

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Foguere illustrating the cuts of government money

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Some of the fogueres were extremely ornate and very large using a crane to lower pieces of them onto other pieces.

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crane being used to create a foguere

Below are just some of the unique fogueres we saw on Monday. We will do a “foguere page” at a later time in the blog of all the unique and beautiful fogueres. Note the details of the tattoo on the main character.

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3 storey high foguere with very ornate design
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Dragon tattoo on the back of the character
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Fooguere in centre of the main street
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A floating Foguere on a raft in Marina. The huge foguere will be burnt in the marina.

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We saw over forty different fogueres on Moday and were completely amazed at the amount of detail and work went into each one of them. Ray even managed to get into the spirit of the event when he worked his way into a photo shoot.

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Ray with people in the foguere festival

It was a long day walking around Alicante, looking at some of the Fogueres. The day was very interesting and the fogueres are amazing pieces of art.

“Adios y que tenga un gran dia”