Doha celebrates Spanish fervour

 One of the most popular celebratory seasons from Spain, the Seville April Fair recently visited Doha attracting dozens of Flamenco enthusiasts and tapas’ lovers dancing to the tunes of flamenco music.  
One of the biggest such events in Spain is yearly in the Andalusian capital of Seville. The fair generally happens in April for six days. From around 9am to until 7am the following day, people fill up the streets before continuing the party in the tents of the fair.
In Doha, it has been entertaining people for the past three years. This year’s event was held at Trader Vic’s at Hilton Doha. The party began at 7pm and continued till 2am featuring different performances including live band Topati, Andalusian live band from Cadiz and Sevilla, Spanish DJ Diego Aguas, Formigal, best outfit awards and a surprise in addition to a raffle draw where one person won a return ticket to anywhere in Europe from Doha from Turkish Airlines. “It is originally called the Seville April Fest. It happens every year around this date in April and it represents probably the biggest part of our traditions regarding flamenco music,” Paloma Garralda, the organiser of the event, tells Community.    
Women are dressed up in ‘faralaes’, the flamenco style dresses and men in standard suits and they go dancing of hours, starting 9am and closing at 7am. “It is 24-hours of dancing with tapas. This is how we celebrate it back in Spain and we wanted to do it here in Qatar also and we made it reality three years ago,” says Paloma.
She says it has been huge success. The Fair tents are the biggest attraction and host most of the activity. “We indeed put some tents here because they represent the exact culture of the Fair. Each tent is supposed to be belonging to an old traditional family of Seville. These tents are usually owned by these families and they hosted some live music in them together with food,” says the organiser. “People go dancing according to the level of friendship they have with that family. It mostly lasts for hours. So inside April Fair, you can find more than 1,500 tents actually. The whole ground is covered with sand and whether there is rain or not, people ride their horses and go dancing for the whole day,” says Paloma.
The response to the events in Doha has been overwhelming right from the first April Fair that they held in W Hotel and then the two that were hosted here at Hilton. People turned up in good numbers and they have really enjoyed themselves. “Interestingly, more than 60% of our guests are not Spaniards; they are coming from many different nationalities which we like because we can teach them what we like the most,” says Paloma.
“Arabs stayed in our country for about 800 years so their influence is very much present on us. And when it comes to dancing, we can see some relation between the Arabic culture and ours,” she adds.
She says there is a large Spanish community, around 5,000 expatriates. And they are so friendly and fun loving that even those 5,000 appear as 100,000!
For one week, life in Seville revolves around this fiesta. The music, food, dancing create a very special atmosphere.  The fest was created in 1847 as a cattle fair, and over time the festive atmosphere took over the business aspect, and it became a permanent fixture in Seville’s social calendar.
For a week more than a thousand “casetas” or tents installed in the fairground area become the second home of the city’s inhabitants, a place where people come together to have fun and share experiences until the early hours of the morning.