I really enjoyed watching those Sanji, the La Carihuela cart all done out in red & white looked good.Lots of people turned out for it, and yes, I do think you should send the last video to your local council, to show them how the cleaning up is done, in fact I think we all should lol.
Thanks for sharing the videos, lovely to watch.

Many thanks again Sanji for some more excellent video's

Thanks for your comments.

the La Carihuela cart all done out in red & white looked good

Yes, as you can hear on the video, it took me by surprise being the first (primera), and trust Dave to be thinking about his stomach and having a nice steak off those bulls pulling the Carihuela cart/caravan. I can't take him anywhere.! The Romería always starts with the equestrians, and I've never seen so many horses pass by.The horses were the only thing I edited out of the video because you'd have got tired of seeing horses, horses and more horses.
Next comes the horse drawn carriages and then the carreta (cart) carrying the statue of San Miguel, which as they are passing the church, they stop and turn towards the church doors, and then sing homage to their patron saint.
If you stay down in the tourist area of Torremolinos, you'll see none of this.!
Next comes the cart sponsored by the ayuntamiento (town hall) and then the other caravans follow behind, and behind them, the tractor drawn floats.

I'm not quite sure what that bloke was thinking holding a puppy up to see the procession, but there's always one.!

Hmmm, I'll not go down the road of saying anymore about the tourist office in La Carihuela, but needless to say, they said the ayuntamiento hadn't sent them any of the booklets with the programme of events"¦I did manage to obtain a poster out of them and it took 3 visits"¦..arrggghhhh.!

Anyway, when I was up in el Calvario barrio having a coffee and thinking about calling in the town hall building myself for a booklet, I was telling the waitress in the café and she said " un momento señora" and came back with an excellent booklet that she gave me, which I've enjoyed reading (in Spanish) and looking at the great pictures inside, showing how they start from scratch every year decorating the caravans.
The booklet is full of history about the Romería/feria, I didn't know that the first published mention of the feria dates back to 1917, and the first published mention of the Romería of Torremolinos dates back to the 29th September 1940 in the "Diario Sur".

I'm full of useless information.!

Sanji x

I've just watched part one which I thoroughly enjoyed- comment left on the media page. Sanji can you tell me who are the people on the various carts/wagons and do they own the bulls that are pulling them? Just wondering if they are local people from the various districts or are they travellers? Thanks

Off to watch part 2 next.

Part 2 was also excellent. It looked like such a fun and lively day. Wish I could have been there Was there a prize for the best dressed cart? I've been trying to pick my favourite but it's too difficult. Most of them had a certain appeal.
Thanks for sharing them with us.

Sanji thanks for standing on that flower pot for 4hrs the videos are great The Spanish really know how to come together for their fiestas etc: we don't even celebrate St Georges day here..

shirley h wrote:

Sanji can you tell me who are the people on the various carts/wagons and do they own the bulls that are pulling them? Just wondering if they are local people from the various districts or are they travellers?

Hi Shirley.
AFAIK, some of the bulls will be owned by the people 'in charge' of them and others may be owned by farmers/land owners, but the people 'in charge' will be employed and working with these bulls every day....or sometimes you see the son proudly leading the bulls, but the father won't be too far away, he'll either be walking by the side of the cart or inside it.!

No travellers, Torremolinos is a big place, most people just think of the tourist San Miguel town centre area, but there's quite a few districts, EG: Montemar-Alto, Montemar- bajo, La Carihuela, El Pinillo, Playamar, Los Alamos, El Calvario, Bajondillo, La Colina, San Miguel and within these districts are clubs and various organisations.

shirley h wrote:

Was there a prize for the best dressed cart? I've been trying to pick my favourite but it's too difficult. Most of them had a certain appeal.

Yes there's various competitions with a prize....the best cart and the best dressed float and I'm almost certain that they receive a commemorative plague, and up in El Calvario district, the best dressed window in the shops up there...I think they get a monetary prize.

There's a lot of rules and regulations to follow for the Romería, you can't just dress up a cart and tag along.
The Ayuntamiento open up the invitation to apply to take part.
The equestrians, horse drawn carriages and tractor drawn carriages may not abandon the position assigned to them before the pilgrimage's ( Romería carts) arrival at the encampment site in the pinewoods.
The organisation ( ayuntamiento) reserve the right to deny participants of any vehicle that does not respect the tradition and beauty of the Romería.
All radio or tape music should preferably be Andalusian songs or ballads and the volume cannot be loud enough to interfere with the music of the next cart.
Up in the pinewoods they are allocated a spot, they have to respect the pinewoods and supply trash bags and dispose of their own rubbish and they can't use "fire" for the preparation of food.
Failure to observe these rules can result in being withdrawn from the pilgrimage and a hefty fine for not following the rules in the pinewoods.

I think that idiot with a microphone at the end of the procession, must have been breaking the noise rule.! What a plonker.!

Sanji x