Vive en la Calle: Experiencing La Feria

Over the past couple of days we have been doing typical Feria activities. One of these activities is going to the casetas, which are always packed with people regardless of the time of day. Yes, they serve alcohol all day long, you want a beer at 10am you got it. They're fun and cheap and have really good food, but most of the time they're so crowded it's a little overwhelming.









At the casetas...as you can see it's pretty crowded

The fireworks and all the people that were there watching them.
(Sorry these pictures aren't laid out very well...)






There are also a lot of free concerts in La Plaza Mayor and other plazas around the city. The first night Pitingo was playing. Apparently he's really famous, but a lot of people have mixed opinions about his music. He's a flamenco-blues singer, but he basically just sang american covers all night and he's kind of greasy and gross looking. And oh yeah, we couldn't even get into the Plaza because it was packed from wall to wall with people. Picture the biggest concert you've ever been to and multiply it by 2 haha. Needless to say we didn't really enjoy Pitingo.

The stage in La Plaza Mayor

But last night 2 Flamenco bands played and they were awesome. It was really unique, especially because the bands were made up of a lot of really weird instruments. One called La Bandina had some kind of lap guitar thing with a crank on the end and a soprano saxophone. The other band, Xose Manuel Budino, had bagpipes and a bunch of crazy looking drums I've never seen before. It was still really crowded but we were able to actually move through the Plaza and stand up front. We all really enjoyed them so you guys should check them out! There are a lot more groups coming in to Salamanca from all over Spain, Italy and France, so that should be fun.

Oh yeah, and one Feria activity I haven't experienced yet but my friend Sabra was terrified about is something for the kids. Apparently these cartoon character people with clubs chase the little kids around the town, and it's supposed to be fun apparently. One day Sabra was caught walking head on into the pack of screaming children and almost had a heart attack. I'll let you know if I have any problems in the next couple of days!