La Feria: Seville’s Spring Flamenco and Bullfighting Festival

In Spain, there’s only one possible festival you could mean when you mention the Feria: Seville’s spring fair.

The Feria is a non-stop whirl of flamenco, food and drink, horses and bullfighting. Expect to sleep little, if at all, as you are paraded around town in a horse-drawn carriage that becomes the primary means of conveyance in the fairgrounds (and beyond) during the week-long festival.

The heart of the action is at the casetas, the tent pavilions set up on the fairgrounds. Most are private (more than 1,000), but if you make friends you can usually get an invitation. There are also seven public casetas, where you can chow down on tapas, drink your fill, and dance the Sevillanas with the locals.

Bullfighting is traditionally an important part of the Feria, acting as a symbolic transition point between the morning and afternoon festivities. Usually the best bulls and matadors are booked for the spring fair, so you’re sure to see something special if you choose to go and see a fight at the home of bullfighting.

And then of course there’s the flamenco. It’s almost mandatory for women to dress in the curve-hugging flamenco dress, flowers and shawl and men to don a suit and ride in on horseback. If you’re looking for an image of romantic Spain, you’ve found it. Oh, there’s the dancing too.

The Feria originally started as a livestock fair in 1847, but, true to Spanish custom, nobody wasted the opportunity to drink sherry, dance and have a rollicking time, and the fair quickly transformed itself into one of the region’s premier festivals.

If you’re looking to enjoy a laid-back Andalucía, the Feria is not for you. But if you’re looking for non-stop revelry, dancing, drinking, bulls and horses and a fairy-tale setting, the Feria in Seville is just your style.