I don't know if you can tell what is going on in this picture-- I'll explain.Saturday during the day we walked around the city and caught just a few of the things going on. Down at the harbor there was a large wine festival and market that we walked around. nothing terribly interesting until the Correfoc began.
The Correfoc, or Fire Run, is what you see in that picture there. It was described in the festival guide as consisting of "forty groups of 'devils' from in and around the city, as well as dragons and other fire beasts." Not terribly clear, but there was also a warning that mentioned wearing clothes that cover you head to toe, damp towels on your head, special goggles, and that there would be ambulances parked up and down the street, presumably well stocked with burn ointment.
We didn't really take this warning too seriously, having grown up in a society guided by Smokey the Bear and laws against reckless use of fire. Surely they wouldn't be so careless with fire as to endanger hundreds of people, right? Andrew and I got to the street where the Correfoc was taking place and tried to get us a fairly safe vantage point. We couldn't help but notice that there were several people who actually were covered head to toe. In fact most everyone was wrapping something around their hair to protect it. The street was absolutely filled with people so we found a spot on the sidewalk next to a building. We figured as the parade started the people in the street would clear off the street and onto the sidewalks and so it would get incredibly cramped.
As the parade started, that didn't happen. People stayed in the streets despite the fact that fire wielding performers were headed straight for them. I'm not quite sure how to describe it other than to refer you to the picture. There were people carrying wands that shot those sparks out over everyone. As they passed you on the street they would turn and spray the crowds on the sidewalk, just in case you thought you were safe. The braver people actually walked amongst the center of the fireworks. There were also some pretty cool dragons that came through breathing fire on everyone as well. One little girl standing next to us was so terrified she kept hiding under me and Andrew. She even pulled him back when he started to step away.
All the excitement was too much for Andrew to just stand by and watch so despite his lack of preventative clothing [edit by Andrew: I was wearing a hoodie that I pulled tight over my head, but my beard was probably still quite flamable], he got out amids the fireworks. I'm posting a video he took. All you can really see is that some guy runs straight for him with the fireworks and sprays him. The unfortunate thing is that you did hear the ambulances heading off to the hospital but the street was so crowded they couldn't get too far. After being sprayed with sparks several times we decided we'd taken our chances quite enough and headed out to catch some of the other concerts and things going on that night.
4 comments:
I'm fascinated by the picture at the top of this post. It looks like you took the picture looking down on the people. I finally had to enlarge the picture to see if that was really the case. Well done! I scroll down to this picture everytime I peek at your blog.
Andrew actually did scamper a bit up the side of a building to get that shot. He kind of braced himself in a corner while I held on to his legs. I couldn't tell if people were disgusted by him doing that or fascinated. I figured he wasn't as bad as the people that had climbed the lampposts and street signs or the people that were holding their toddler on their shoulders as the sparks came by. Or the ones that covered their baby with newspaper to protect him from the sparks. That just really didn't seem like a good idea.
Does anyone remember how to spell stupidity? Is that with a small "s" or a capital "S"?
Love, Dad
I think here it's spelled "Correfoc".
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