Seville Tourist Information - Fiestas in Seville

Seville Fiestas:

• Semana Santa in Seville

In essence, Semana Santa involves the marching in procession of brotherhoods of the church and penitents, followed by elaborate and grandly decorated floats on which sit seventeenth century images of the Virgin or Christ.

For months beforehand, the bands practice their short, fervent flamenco style hymns about the Passion and the Virgin's sorrows throughout the city. Though the festival has a serious note to it, it is celebrated with gaiety and carousing and frivolity. The bars and pubs are full with people making merry. Throughout the week, the processions leave churches all over the city from early afternoon onwards, snaking through the city and back to their resting place many hours later. Good Friday morning is the climax, when the procession leave the churches at midnight and move through the town for most of the night.

The highlight is the arrival at the cathedral in the early hours of the morning. On the Thursday, the local women wear black. Tourists wearing T-shirts and shorts are seen as being disrespectful of the traditions of this solemn day.

• April Fair:

One of the most famous and enduring images of Seville is its Feria de Abril, or April fair. It is celebrated just two weeks after the Semana Santa- on a Monday at midnight and ends on the midnight of the following Sunday- the occasion marked by a spectacular fireworks display.
There are many Sevillanos spend the whole year making elaborate and detailed preparations for this one week of wild celebrations. A typically Spanish fair, it features flamenco, horses, and bullfighting. There are over 1000 exhibition areas, known as 'casetas' at the event site, most of which have ongoing flamenco performances, loud music and a bar.

At noon every day there is a procession called the 'Paseo de Caballos'- Beautifully decorated carriages drawn by fine horses- carrying local girls attired in colourful and beautiful flamenco outfits. In the evening some of the year's top bullfights take place at the Plaza de Toros de Maestranza with tickets selling out well in advance.
The venue for the fair is the 'Real de la Feria' just outside the city centre opposite the Maria Luisa park. The fair is on such enormous proportions that the whole area take on an appearance of a city for a week.
Next to the site is a huge fairground with all the usual rides, food stalls, shows and other attractions. The evenings see this ground packed with people out to enjoy the evening and savour the flavours of the fiesta. It’s the one event that has given Seville an international fame, and it draws scores of tourists from all over the world every year.