Miriam Reik Photogapher

Fiestas

Fiestas play a huge role in the cycle of cultural life in Andalucia. Throughout this most southerly part of Spain, the locals, blessed with a natural flair for exhibitionism and a love of celebration, become the performers in their infectious dramas enacted on the streets, the festival ground and here for you to see in these photographs. This is pure spectacle.

There are that many fiestas ( the majority having religious origins ) that they almost appear to hover threateningly over the sun drenched Iberian horizon, poised and ready to swoop in, one following on the heels of the other.. The calendar starts with Los Tres Reyes (the 3 Kings) on January 6, followed by Carnival in February (Carnival in Cadiz is the most revered in Spain), and then the multitude of spring and summer ferias (fairs) with each pueblo or town claiming their own as best. Local saints days are interspersed in between.

Flamenco dresses, horse parades, dancing, outlandish costume and jewelry , music, religious fervour, cerveza and manzanilla, disguise, processions, all come together to form a tantalizing melee of performance and partying. I spent 5 years in Cadiz province documenting this wild and wonderful merry -go-round of events.