Feria de Jerez

Feria de Jerez, also known as Feria del Caballo ("Horse Fair") is one of the most important celebrations in Jerez de la Frontera, only comparable to Holy Week. It's the most important fair in (Cádiz) and has been declared as international interest celebration by Spanish Secretariat for Tourism and Comerce, that belongs to Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Comerce [ [http://www.webjerez.com/index.php?id=503 Town Corporation offical site] comenting Feria (in Spanish)] .

History

Its origins are in the medieval ages, during one week farmers gathered to sell and buy animals, in Jerez mainly horses, usually drinking sherry tocelebrate the deals.

Celebration

Nowadays it is celebrated in "Parque González Hontoria" (Jerez). It is always celebrated in May, one week after "Feria de Abril", of Sevilla and before El Rocío.

The Feria is divided in two parts: one is a kind of small village, with streets that have bars and restaurants at both sides (these restaurants are called "Casetas"). The other is a "Theme Park"/"carnival" style area where kids and grown ups can have fun on different rides such as roller coasters, bumper cars etc...

At the "Feria de Jerez" all the casetas are public, so anyone can just walk into any one and enjoy the food, drinks, and dancing. This is one of the main features that differenciates it from the Seville Fair as most of the "casetas" there are private and therefore only card holding members are allowed in.

In the casetas, throughout the day and night, people will usually be found drinking fino sherry, and in more recent years a new trend is to mix the Manzanilla with lemonade creating what is commonly known as Rebujito.

At night time there is a sort of "roof" of pretty decorative lights lighting this little "village" like area, which allows the party to last all the way till dawn.

Dates

* 2008: from April 27th to May 4th.
* 2007: from April 6th to May 13th.

References