La Festival Nacional de la Guabina y el Tiple

The biggest week in Vélez takes place in early August when the Feria de la Guabina y el Tiple comes to town and it seems the population triples almost overnight. The festivities kicked off on Tuesday morning at 5am with bottle rockets and alborada, a very loud band that marches the streets for an hour! When we asked why so early, they said it's for the drunk people, which was confusing for us, but made sense later in the week. It seemed each day had a different kind of desfile (parade). The three big ones were the horses on Friday, Chicha on Saturday and Flowers on Sunday. The children pictures here are wearing the traditional traje of Vélez.

Friday featured 33 Parranda Veleña, a parade of horses and riders. They assembled at the edge of town at 1pm, and the first ones reached the square at 5. We watched for a couple hours and they still weren't finished when we left for dinner. It was like no parade I've seen before. It was very slow. They would stop for long periods of time, sometimes to chat with spectators, riding back and forth along the route, some with a beer in one hand, reins in the other. It looked a lot like bumper cars on horses. Sometimes the horses would bang into others and often end up bunched up in a tight group. By the end the riders had been at it for a good 8 hours. 

The horses were doing a special maneuver, a very fast footed trot, while moving forward slowly and somewhat sideways. It looked pretty intense.They were obviously trained well. No separation between horses and spectators, made for some risky situations, and the next day I met a man who was injured by a horse during the parade. It's avoidable by keeping your distance, but it's also more fun to be right in front!

For Saturday's parade, EVERYONE was wearing a sombrero and traje, traditional clothing for this area, so it was hard to distinguish between the parade and spectators. Each parade group, unified with a colored ribbon on their hat came through distributing chicha, a traditional fermented drink made with corn, but alternatives include pineapple, rice, and other fruits. They sometimes had multiple 5 gallon jugs on wagons! They also handed out baked corn kernels and chicharon. This is just the beginning section, a sea of hats. This continues past me at least the same distance, then turns down another street leading to the square. Just a ton of people! Below is our friend, Nora, getting a chicha refill.

Our friends, Alejandro and Claudia, came prepared with their own chicha to share and calabazas, little cups worn as a necklace to conveniently drink what is shared. They also brought piquete, a traditional food basket containing cooked potatoes, yucca, chorizo, wrapped in banana leaves to keep warm. 

The Desfile de Los Flores (flower parade) on Sunday was my favorite. Check out this teeny tiny, traje-wearing dog! 

Many of the floats and decorations were bird related, which i really enjoyed.

Bands played traditional instruments including a jawbone (far left) and dancers performed while balancing bowls of chicha on their heads.

Vélez is known for their bocadillos (guava candies), so I thought this float was super clever.

After the floats, the horses again joined the parade, decorated with flowers. This time riders were wearing trajes and the women had their dresses turned around so the hand stitched panel was displayed over the end of the horse.

Journey hopped on when she spotted her favorite horse again at the end of the parade. 

At night the streets filled with food and game vendors. Pictured below is lechona, a deboned pig 

that has been slow roasted and stuffed with rice, pork and peas.

The stage hosted entertainment throughout the day, competitions and displays in song, including Guabinas, dance, and coplas, and at night big name performers played all through the night until 5am! Now you see why the Alborada starts at 5am, leading the drunk people away from the square! It's truly a nonstop event over the weekend! Saturday night featured a ton of fireworks around 11pm, which Journey and I watched from our apartment, two blocks from the square.

We really enjoyed our first feria experience in Vélez, but it was also nice when Vélez returned back to the quiet, little, tranquilo town it normally is. This is absolutely an amazing feria to experience!