The Seville Fair has always raised multiple opinions about the fact that most of its booths are private. There are those who carry the slogan that “the fair is for the Sevillians”, as who places a dividing line to delimit us from the others and mark us as a group.
Although this does not occur only at the fair, its privacy and limited access continues to cause some controversy. In any case, what is the reason for this controversial feature?
It is well known that the Fair was founded by a Basque and a Catalan on August 25, 1846. Narciso Bonaplata and José María de Ybarra proposed that an annual fair be held on April 19, 20 and 21.
The Seville Fair was held for the first time in 1847. That first Fair located in the Prado de San Sebastián had 19 booths. Focused then on livestock and agriculture, it only consisted of small tents to shelter from the sun.
The following year, Queen Isabella II’s brother-in-law, the Duke of Montpensier, organized the first known private fair. He set up a luxurious campaign, in a private and guarded enclosure, in order to enjoy the fair days with an audience “of his own level”.
And this was imitated by the nobles of the time in the years that followed. Due to the duke’s actions, different social strata began to coexist in the Seville Fair, with access restrictions.
The other fairs of Andalusia
Despite the consolidated success in Seville, the other cities, towns and villages took the fairs as events for commercial purposes. Fortunately, some things have changed since then and the fairs we know today have lost their livestock character.
Today, the focus is on festivities and enjoyment , even though Seville’s fairs maintain some deep-rooted traditions. Be that as it may, the fairs will always be the great propagandistic festivals of Andalusia.
Fortunately, when asked if, in addition to the private ones, there are free entrance booths, here we offer a concise answer.
And the fact is that, although these are quite crowded spaces and do not replace even a third of the casetas in the Real, the Feria de Abril does have some public casetas with free access.