Photos

Hello friends and colleagues, today I offer a view inside a booth of the fair of my city, it is a place where people gather to drink and eat typical food of Jerez, also dancing the unique dance called Sevillana. Here are some letters about the fair in my city. I hope you like it.

The Horse Fair is a fair held every May in Jerez de la Frontera (Andalusia, Spain).
Declared of International Tourist Interest by the Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Commerce, it is, together with Holy Week, one of the largest and most important festivities of the city.

Origins:
It arose from equine trade in the Middle Ages, in which farmers gathered to close deals.
A document dated September 13, 1481 already specified the location of the origins of the fair: from Puerta del Real to Calle Francos, including Plaza de la Yerba.
The current fair is born from the union of the cattle fair of Dehesa de Caulina and the leisure fair open to the public in 1903.
For many years of the twentieth century was one of the two fairs that were held in Jerez next to the Harvest Fair in September, which are currently held in another format.

Current fair:
The Horse Fair is held a week after the April Fair in Seville (which in turn is held depending on the Holy Week) and before the Romería del Rocío. During the festivities and during the week, (the fair usually lasts seven days, although the last few years have lasted nine to incorporate the previous weekend) horses parade with their riders who, as in the past, are still selling. During the whole week, only during the day, there is a great parade of horse cars through the central streets.
The Fair is currently held in Parque González Hontoria, a park that combines large areas of albero with landscaped areas. The main gate of the park is used as the cover of the Fair.

Data:
The Fair currently has more than 250 booths, each with its particular atmosphere and gastronomic specialties
Most of the booths compete in the contests of best cover and best decoration.
The typical drinks of the Jerez fair are the oloroso and the fine wine, that the less purists like to mix the latter with lime sodas, a combination known as rebujito.
The most usual day dress at Feria is the short dress, if it is mounted on horseback, and gypsy costume (or flamenco dress) for women, and half-tailored during the night.
The gastronomy is very varied, but focusing on the fried fish and typical stews, such as bull tail, tagarninas esparragás, menudo, cabbage Jerezana and of course the best seafood and cold meats.

The booths are all different, and are usually made of material (not curtains, as in other fairs around). Its management is entrusted to groups of the city (companies, brotherhoods, associations, etc.), which use it for financing either through direct exploitation or by transferring it to a professional.

Peculiarities:
After the mayor Pedro Pacheco's ban on the existence of the Fair of private booths in the Real, the mythical Gonzalez Byass booth was demolished and the rest of the booths have become public, facilitating fun for all people who are not of the area.

Design competition Unlike most fairs, which maintain a uniform design of all their booths, the Horse Fair allows each booth to have a different design. What's more, the city council holds several booth contests in each edition: better company booth, better association booth, better corner booth (due to the difficulty of decorating two sides), etc.

Retirement Day. In the last editions, Monday has been reserved as a retired day and discounts are made on the attractions so that the elderly can take their grandchildren to them. Likewise, the attractions cost half on Monday. In addition, Wednesday has been reserved as a day for women.

Gay-Friendly Fair. Due to its open and popular character, the Horse Fair was one of the first fairs in Andalusia to have an explicitly LGBT booth.
Source Wikipedia.

Make: SONY
Model: DSC-W170
Software: PhotoScape
Exposure Time: 10/2000 sec
F-Stop: f/3.3
ISO Speed Ratings: 100
Focal Length: 5 mm
Date Taken: 2008-01-09 18:30
Metering Mode: Pattern
Flash: Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode
File Size: 720 k