Plans Plans Plans: Festival Del Carmen

Here it comes again! The patron saint of fishermen and sailors. This festival is celebrated all around the coast in July and August.
In Rianxo it was a three day festival of music fireworks and drinking

We took our dinghy ashore, by carefully avoiding landing on the beach and taking a much shorter dinghy ride around the corner to the inner corner of the harbour wall we ( well I ) avoided the steep climb and descent over the headland. My knee had been giving me a bit of pain and the discovery of a hidden slipway by the local sailing club made going into Rianxo a lot easier. We were aware that the festival of Carmen was going to be celebrated that weekend and were curious as to what the advertised ' procession of the vehicles ' was all about.

It turned out to be just that. At the small chapel near the fish dock a local priest was enthusiastically, and with no small degree of humour blessing a long procession of decorated vehicles. If a driver was foolish enough to open his window, they would receive a face full of holy water, a poor man on a moped became a particular target! It was also once the lorry tractors joined in very noisy!

We spotted a regular visitor to our anchorage, a classic local schooner that ran day trips tied up at the harbour and ' dressed overall'

In town was the usual fairground rides and medieval market. There were also the performers juggling knives.

I made a little film of the morning.........

After lunch we tried to avoid the heat of the day by having a beer in the beach bar. Being weekend the beach was very popular with local families.

Of course the highlight of the festivities would be the procession of the statue of our lady of Carmen. It was normal to process through the streets but we have also come to expect particularly in fishing oriented villages and towns that the statue is put aboard a fishing boat and taken out to the ' bateas ' and ' viveros ' out in the Ria.

As with a lot of religious festivities in Spain I find the depth of faith and feeling sometimes surprising. As we walked down to the harbour this was going to be one of those times, a sizeable crowd had gathered and small craft and fishing boats were circling in the water all gaily decorated with flags flowers and palm fronds. People were dressed in their Sunday best.

There was a group of traditional dancers and the inevitable band with pipes and drums. With great ceremony the statue of our lady of Carmen was escorted out into the Ria.

I filmed the spectacle and Lynne and I walked back towards the sailing club for a drink in the bar there, we watched the fleet return as the sun set and as we launched our dinghy to return to Dark Tarn we noticed a familiar yacht slip into the channel up to the harbour entrance. It was Modus Vivendi and our friends Bob and Maureen. We would catch up with them tomorrow.

We had a nightcap in the cockpit and listened to the music drifting over the treetops from the town.

We arranged to meet up with Bob and Maureen and their French guest Gerard, a lovely and large fellow for lunch. This meant we had to negotiate the festival of foam (all mistranslations are my fault)