Fiesta mayor

Now it definitely feels a year since we moved to Sabadell, as I remember (and you can check the corresponding entry on this blog) that we were already here last year by the time of the fiesta. As it happened last year, the whole city took a few days off to party on the streets.
Now I'm more blase about all this fiesta time, the fireworks, the street shows, the diables with their dragon shooting fire, the trabucaires and so on but for my dad it was his first time and he's never been in a local, small town, fiesta; so I went with him and we had a great time. My dad is amazing in that he never loose the childish ability to crave and enjoy new stuff. He really made an effort to stand there for hours to make sure he didn't miss a thing. And later on he went on watching everything again on TV, as the local channel broadcast the whole party during the following week. From the mayor opening the part from the council balcony, (in Catalán so we couldn't understand much) to the last Castellets on the last day, my dad tried hard to see as much as he could and was sorry that he missed a few of the shows as they were scattered around town and nobody could possibly see it all.
And when all was over, he asked me to send the pictures by e-mail to his friend and my sister so he could share it all.
The thing I liked the most and left my dad duly amazed by was the castells made by the local group Castellers de Sabadell (see picture of a Castell in front of the council house, check the flags on top: from right to left, EC's blue flag, the one of Catalunya, the Spanish and finally the town's own). It never fails to amaze me that triumph and show of union power that this castells are. I think that my dad loved most to see people dancing one of the local folk dance the sardana.

I wish my British friends could see this, as I bet they'll be amazed by the lack of health and safety as diables dance in and out of the crowd brandishing their spears with their burning fireworks at their end. Just in case, there's always an ambulance or two nearby but it still shocking to see how close to the sparks people gets, and that includes small children, even babies, old people who could not jump if needs arises, etc etc. I wonder how many burnt people they have each year; obviously not enough as to stop the fireworks.