Seville April Fair

The Seville Fair was born as a livestock fair. It was proposed by two councillors, José María Ybarra, a Basque, and Narciso Bonaplata, a Catalan, and the City Council approved it on 18 September 1846. The first one opened on 18 April 1847 at the Prado de San Sebastián, with 19 casetas (marquees) and lasting three days. Singing and dancing soon began to gain ground over the livestock trading.

In 1910 the City Council made it a Fiesta Mayor. With the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition the fair, by then unrelated to livestock trading, became established at the Prado de San Sebastián, where it stayed until 1972; it then moved to the Los Remedios district, where it is today.

The Real (fairground) is an ephemeral town of more than a thousand casetas, with streets named after bullfighters, a ground of albero (yellow sand) brought from Alcalá de Guadaíra and thousands of light bulbs covered with paper lanterns. Every year a monumental entrance gate (portada) is built recalling a monument or an event in the city's history.

At the Real de la Feria, in the Los Remedios district. The entrance gate stands on Calle Antonio Bienvenida, where there is a tourist information point, and there is another on Calle Costillares. Next to the fairground is the Calle del Infierno, the fair's huge temporary amusement park.

There are public casetas, open to everyone: the Seville Tourism one (Pascual Márquez, 225-229), the Municipal Caseta (Pepe Luis Vázquez, 53) and those of the city districts.

Going by car is not recommended. Tussam runs special shuttle buses to the Fair from the Prado de San Sebastián at a single fare, and lines 5, 6, 41, C1 and C2 also reach the fairground. The nearest Metro line 1 stops are Plaza de Cuba, Parque de los Príncipes and Blas Infante; the Metro runs non-stop during the Fair. Taxis and ride-hailing cars have special access points and fares.

On the eve, Monday night, the members of each caseta dine on fried fish (pescaíto) and wait until midnight, when the gate and then, section by section, the street lights are switched on: this is the alumbrao.

By day, roughly from 2 pm to 7 pm, is the horse parade: riders in traditional short jackets and horse-drawn carriages go round the fairground. After 8 pm, once the horses have gone, the night fair begins and lasts until the early hours. People dance sevillanas, drink fino, manzanilla and rebujito (manzanilla with lemonade), and Seville women usually wear the flamenca dress, which became established with the 1929 Exposition. It coincides with the bullfighting season at the Maestranza.