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Thursday Jan 17, 2019
Carlos finally showed up to repair some roof tiles at the back, plant the 3 flowers, and check the emergency water tank. Because of all the redirected traffic on our front street due to the Fiesta, we put off the roof leak repair until Monday.
It was a warm day and my thermometer inside the house recorded temps up to 31C. I don't know what it was outside. I am getting a little more acclimatized as time goes on but that is still bloody warm for a Canadian boy.
We checked out the Fiesta happenings downtown after lunch but zero was happening yet. We came home and napped mostly and I watched some tennis.
At 7pm we went out and things were beginning to move. It was very odd the way they had things blocked off. They had loads of chairs in front of the stage but seemed to be blocking entry, leading Cristina to think that we had to pay to sit in the audience.
Because this is in the dark I took the Sony with the long lens.
We had a short bite at 2 different booths (almost all the booths had the same food), checked out the kiddie rides, cruised the sales booths (many in terrible locations) and Cristina found a cloth shoulder bag that she liked for $10.
Around 8pm they opened up the barricades and we found a seat on the aisle near the back. An aisle seat gives me a better chance of unobstructed shots as long as nobody is walking in the aisle, and there were salespeople almost always in my way. So, please remember that almost all my shots are taken around 150 feet away, at full zoom, with no flash, virtually in the dark. The Sony is my go-to camera for night shots.
The fiesta in Andalucia included lots of music and 8 lovely young ladies vying to be Miss Andalucia. I am horrible at remembering names so please forgive me. They replayed videos of these contestants over and over and over as background. Believe me, some images you didn't want to see more than once!
The first musical entertainment came from a local man and a young girl who sadly couldn't hit a note with a sledgehammer.
I was being critical of the sound men beside us because there was horrible bass reverb that ruined the enjoyment of the music, until I realized that the silly bass boom-boom was coming from a noisy bar at the back of the square. I think someone must have spoken to the bar because that lasted only about 1/2 hour.
Another factor in shooting tonight was the gawd-awful lighting on the stage. While they had a nice backdrop screen mostly playing images of the beauty queen hopefuls, and from 3 or more cameras on the performers, the rest of the lighting was almost all at the rear, pointed at us, blinding us most of the night. There was little or no lighting on the performers, and zero lighting when they were on the catwalk. It was disgraceful.
Luckily the off-key duo gave way to a trio of older guys who were amazing with their acoustic guitars, maracas and terrific voices. They were a complete surprise and kept us enraptured with many sweet songs.
Then came a fellow that I thought was the best of the night, using canned music, but with a wonderfully clear voice. He played a long set as well.
However, the crowd was waiting for the next act, a television star named Julio Jaramillo, who isn't pretty, but he does have a good voice and terrific stage presence. A 7-piece band accompanied him and the sound was so good that I thought that maybe they were doing a Milli Vanilli.... He allowed himself to be in selfie shots with fans the whole time he was singing. While I thought the previous fellow definitely had the better voice, Julio was quite the better overall entertainer for sure....
We enjoyed a couple of brews during the show and didn't get home until after 11pm. The dogs were sure happy to see us.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.
Al
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| The 3 new outdoor plants are in the ground |
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| The back of the stage for tonight's festivities. |
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| Even bus service on our street during the Fiesta |
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| Remember, this is inside... |
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| Checking out the booths on the side streets |
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| Fire-roasted beef mostly |
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| This was far from ready yet |
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| The screen showed the beauty contestants over and over |
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| Kiddie rides on a side street |
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| Crowds enjoying this section of rides |
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| Screen showing beauty contestants in swimsuits. My fave in yellow. |
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| One of the contestants |
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| The couple who could not sing |
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| Television reporter close to us |
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| There were probably 1,500 people in this crowd |
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| The 3 old guys were delightful |
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| This guy's picking was incredible |
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| An appearance by the beauty queens |
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| Bad lighting so better views on the big screen |
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| Eight lovely gals aged 18 to 24 |
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| Last year's queen at left and on screen |
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| Lots of poise mixed with nervousness |
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| They each got to walk for us. |
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| This nice lady was the best |
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| She had a nice, straight walk,.. no exaggerations. |
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| Only 18, but she is my pick to win. |
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| I am usually pretty good at picking winners |
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| All strutted their stuff |
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| A very nice bunch. Too bad about the awful lighting. |
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| I though that this guy was the best of the night |
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| He had an awesome voice |
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| Julio's band getting set up in the background |
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| It was nice to get a long set from this guy |
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| Julio Jaramillo had the crowd in the palm of his hand |
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| He definitely gave the crowd what they wanted |
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| Thank God for the screen tonight |
