Fancy dress or what?

We have lots of fiestas here in Spain. The really spectacular ones are the Moors and Christians. The fiesta usually lasts two weeks and starts off with choosing the King and Queen. During the two weeks there are lots of parades and mock battles. The culmination is the Moors and Christians parade on the final Saturday and Sunday night.

We went last night to Guardamar to watch their parade. It started almost on time 9.00pm (was due to start at 8.30pm), and it lasted for two hours. The costumes are fantastic and each year the costumes are very different and very colourful. The one above is just one of the many groups that are in the parade.

Its a great atmosphere as there are hundreds of people lining the main street, they all bring their chairs and tables and their wine or beer, and sit and chat and watch the parade go by. Nobody gets drunk and all the participants are applauded. This year children as young as 2 where in the parade, dressed up in the minature costumes of the adults. Each section of the parade has its own band, proper musicians playing trumpets, trombones, drums etc, the noise is quite deafening.

The parade went on until 11pm, we left and came back to our town and went to a local bar (The Taberna), Sarah knows it. Had a couple of brandies and coffee then left there at some unearthly hour to go home to bed.