Una experiencia del Carnaval de Cádiz como una extranjera

¡Hola a tod@s! He vuelto para hablar un poco más de mis experiencias como una extranjera en Sevilla. Hoy, voy a describir mi visita al Carnaval de Cádiz.

I went to Cádiz for the carnival on the

18^th of February with my friend from Ireland, Lucile (she is also an Erasmus student). We had seen adverts for the carnival everywhere. Signs up in the streets, announcements on Instagram, and messages about it in every Whatsapp group chat. We had to go.

The Erasmus Student Network (ESN) were arranging a trip there. The bus would arrive at about 6pm, but it wasn’t leaving until 3 in the morning! That felt a little too late for us. We decided to book our own buses and just see what was going on when we got there.

When we arrived at the bus stop, everyone was dressed up in crazy outfits. We were definitely getting on the correct bus. There were pirates, police officers, fairies. There didn’t seem to be a theme. As long as you were dressed as something, you would fit in. Lucile and I were not. Oops!

I am not entirely sure what we were expecting. I suppose organised parades through the streets, with rehearsed music and dance; that is what I think of when I imagine when I think of a carnival. But this carnival was different. The main event seemed to be the people themselves. They were all dressed up and drinking and partying in the streets in big groups. Families and people of all ages. It looked like great fun, although as extranjeras, it felt a little difficult to join in with the fun.

A real highlight for me was the groups of people that would dress up and sing songs in the streets. We saw a group of women dressed up as abuelas singing songs with scandalous lyrics. I later learned that these singing groups create comical performances that critique the events that have made the news over the year.

If I went again, I think I would have different expectations. Instead of going expecting to watch a performance, I would go ready to get involves in the action. We only went for a few hours, and mostly just observed what was going as we wandered through the streets. My advice to a first timer at the Cádiz Carnival would be: arrive ready to party!

Overall, although the carnival wasn’t exactly what I was expecting (not that that is a bad thing!), I loved how involved everyone was. There was no age limit for this party. People were attending from the age of 5 to the age of 85. And all with equal dedication to their costumes. You can tell it is something that is looked forward to all year round, and it is something that brings everyone together!

Fotos de: https://www.cadizturismo.com/eventos/carnaval-de-cadiz