Callejeando - by Theo

For our third and final San Isidro outing we decided to go and catch some of the circus and street theatre acts that were taking place over the weekend. The whole programme was entitled "Callejeando", which means "loitering", an odd-choice, though I guess it was what the crowd ended up doing. Staged in three Plazas in the cosmopolitan barrio of Lavapies, the programme repeated itself at various set times, so after an early lunch we headed over, aiming to make the two o'clock show of Arcane.
This was essentially a trapeze show but using the axle of a giant wheel instead of the more traditional bar-on-a-rope-swing. As the troupe responsible were French, Les Philebulistes, they of course had to load their show with thoughtful movements, sentimental music and pensive posturing from the bare-chested performers, much like the man-and-digger dance we'd seen a couple of years ago. Frankly they could have ditched all that and gone for more somersaults. Rosie wasn't impressed, preferring to try out her tap dancing on a metal bench.


Next we met up with our friend Anne and moved round the corner for Les Colporteurs' performance of Les Etolies, another French troupe (there were also Spanish and Dutch artists performing). However, they were very good, with some impressive feats of balancing and grace, and at least the "story" of their high-wire act was easy to follow and more universal.
Boy-meets-girl and vice versa, boy pursues girl, girl falls in love with boy, boy then rejects girl for being clingy and literally walks all over her. This had Kate yelling "misogynist!" from the sidelines. However boy has a change of heart/mind/testicles (delete as appropriate) and takes girl back, at which point she realises what a jerk he is, tries to push him off the wire, fails, so leaves him in a dignified manner, which naturally brought a loud cheer from Kate (I would have clapped too but I was holding a flagging Rosie).

By which point it was nap time for our daughter so I duly walked back in the vague direction of home while she slumbered in the buggy.

Planeta Madrid 2011 - by Theo

One of our favourite events of San Isidro celebrations past has been the Planeta Madrid Concert. Previously this free world music event has been held in a bare, muddy lot in Legazpi, but this year it was thankfully moved to Parque Enrique Tierno Galvin near Mendez Alvaro, where we first lived when we came to Madrid.

It's a gorgeous shady park, with a purpose-built amphitheatre offering great sight-lines and acoustics; the only question was why they didn't hold the concert there the previous two years!

Another welcome change, for us at least, was the 12pm start time (the finish stayed the same - midnight). Great for us, as it meant we could get there after Rosie's first nap, have a picnic and stay for a good four hours or so, rather than the 45 minutes we managed last year! Not so great for the performers though, as most Spaniards just haven't got the hang of early starts and many would still be in bed at that hour. There were barely a hundred people there when the first act, Kucha Mala, a lively Spanish-Russian collaboration got under way and numbers didn't swell much during the afternoon, with the audience mostly restricted to fitness fanatics out for a run or families with young children (and thus no chance of a lie-in!) Crazy really, but there is a sad apathy among Madrileños for local events (one of my Madrid-born-and-raised friends didn't believe me when I told him there was a carnival in Madrid), although it might also be to do with the fact that the park is possibly one of Madrid's best kept secrets, being hard to access due to railway lines on two sides and being in a relatively new barrio.

Still, we managed to persuade a couple of Madrileños to join us. Belen and Cesar and their five year old nephew Hugo made it at the positively early hour of 1.30, bearing tortilla and cheese, and just in time for Toom Pak, a sort of Spanish version of stomp with added flames and angle-grinders, who managed to get what little crowd there was involved.

Any hopes the organisers might have had of the event picking up later in the day and attracting the numbers it had in previous years were truly scotched by the weather. The cloudless blue skies that greeted us as we left our house gave way to impressive anvil clouds that bubbled up from the sierra to the north. In the end, even Cesar's positive thinking couldn't keep away the thunderstorm the weather forecast had predicted, and we made it to the car just as a vicious wind heralded the first drops of rain. Not such a shame for us, as by then it was 4pm and we would have had to go within the hour in any case, but such as shame for the show. Hopefully Madrileños will start waking up, literally and take advantage of the amazing events on their doorstep.

Noche de Fuego - by Theo

It's San Isidro weekend, which means the city is laying on loads of free events to celebrate its patron saint. I'd been meaning to go out and take some night time photos of Madrid, so when I saw one of the events was a fire display on the riverside I immediately requested a late pass from Kate and invited our photographer friend Anne along.
Starting from the beautiful old Puerta de Toledo, now pedestrianised, we walked past the Vicente Calderon Stadium (home of Atletico de Madrid) through the brand new Manzanares river park. It's very well done, with lots of interesting use of spaces (swings under road bridges) and lights, and a haven for cyclists, runners and roller-bladers. Dodging these, we finally made our way to the Puente del Rey, which is where the Noche de Fuego began.
From the brief glance I'd had at the San Isidro programme I'd thought it was going to be a firework display, but actually it was a fire show, with various arrangements of flames along the river and adjoining paths. Some large, some small, some static, some in motion, it was all very magical and photographer's dream! There were certainly plenty of cameras around, with the illuminated Royal Palace and cathedral helping to create a stunning backdrop.

For all the lack of enthusiasm for San Isidro that my students had demonstrated, the place was packed, mostly with Spaniards, who had all brought their children along, despite the fact it was getting on for 11pm. Some little girls were dancing like mad in front of the beautifully laid out stage area where two musicians were creating looped soundtracks. Their frantic movements and long shutter speeds helped create awesome photos, leaving them (as I explained to their father who was worried about them blocking my shot) as faint, ghostly images.

the Circus has come to town, to town... by Theo

As well as free concerts, San Isidro weekend also brought free Circus fun, to be found in a small park just off the Ronda de Toledo. Meeting up with our friend Rebecca, we arrived slightly late for the first event to find ourselves at the back of a rather large-ish crowd. The only way to get any kind of view at all was to stand on a little climbing frame!There were two events taking place. The first, the Kawa Circus, was straight out of Rajastan, a combination of silent story-telling, acrobatics, music, dance and magic. From the bemused faces on the Spanish crowd I could tell that the story being enacted - two rival suitors for a beautiful girl guarded jealously by her pantomime villain father - really wasn't getting through.
It didn't really matter however, especially when the story reached its pinnacle (literally) as the two suitors were challenged to ever more spectacular feats on the tight-rope and a top a 20 ft pole. Impressive stuff.After the grand finale we, along with Rebecca's friend Mel and her two children, quickly moved over to where the second Circus was set up to grab a spot. Unfortunately the girls spent so much time standing up chatting away, that they neglected to actually sit down and thus lost the spot I'd bagged for them. We ended up having a our view obscured by a tree. Careless talk not only costs lives apparently, it also costs viewing privileges at leafy amphitheaters.

The second circus was much more modern, a one-man show about a tramp in his shack, with loads of ingenious, self-made modifications, like a unicycle powered dynamo. It was a witty affair, aimed at both parents and children, with plenty of slapstick to keep the kids amused and a satirical attack on estate agents got a lot of laughs from the adults. There was also an excellent take on juggling which I hadn't seen before - instead of throwing the balls in the air he was bouncing them off a table. It struck me as potentially far more difficult as there are more things to go wrong. It was well done and a great little show.

The weather had thankfully stayed dry, so we popped round to see Bianca, Stefan and their newborn son Oliver in nearby Puerta de Toledo, persuading them out to a late lunch on a nearby terrace. A lovely end to the day.

Planeta de Madrid

It's San Isidro week and, like last year, this means a flurry of free events taking place across Madrid to celebrate their local saint. One of our favourite events of last year's fiesta had been the Planeta de Madrid, which was held again this year (though only for one night this year - I guess 'la crisis' has taken its toll) and despite, or perhaps in defiance of our experience mixing Rosie with world music at WOMAD, we went along.

The crazy weather we've been having meant black skies and cold winds, though we're not sure if it was this or the skronky jazz of the Chop Suey Quartet, who were playing as we entered the arena of the Matadero, that upset Rosie. Anyway, we retreated to the Fair Trade tent to give her a feed and pop her in the sling, which seemed to relax her a bit.
We had met up with our American friend Anne and Senegalese friend Aboboucar, who was there proudly wearing an laminate for the next act, his compatriots Jac et le Takeifa, a fun family band mixing traditional Senegalese rhythms with Western instrumentation. They were good, and we had fun dancing to them at the back - we felt we couldn't get too close with Rosie's unprotected ears!
However the undoubted star of the show was the interactive children's area, though the kids were nearly out-numbered by adults (us included), fascinated by the sound sculptures it contained. From percussive devices that were a mix of abacus and catherine wheel and massive xylophones to amazing organs that involved squeezing a wellie or rubber glove to force air through a recorder (some operated by a barrel-organ style handle to play a simple tune) these were great fun. All clearly made from salvaged or recycled materials, it was a wonderful play park for young and old alike. Such a shame it was temporary - a permanent area like this in a local park would definitely prove popular.

Chulapas, chotis and rosquillas

It's all thanks to San Isidro. Patron saint of farmers and of Madrid (about the least-agricultural place you can imagine) thanks to his divine ability to plough perfect furrows (helped by angels) and the spring that gushed forth to help him carry out a little resurrection in the (now) capital city. To celebrate, Madrid holds a big fiesta on the days around the 15th of May and this year, we joined in.

San Isidro is one of the most important bullfighting events in the world, with numerous corridas and the highlights all over the news. As you can imagine, this is one part of the festivities Theo and I declined. We've had numerous arguments with bullfighting fans about its merits, but are yet to be convinced. Pro-bullfighting Spaniards consider it an art and a display of great bravery on the part of the matador, but to me, it's still death for public spectacle, no matter how artistically or bravely achieved. Anyway, we gave it a miss.

The other aspects of the festival were a lot more to our taste. The business of dressing up in traditional Madrileno costume (chulapa or chulapo) to dance chotis, for example. The men's chulapos are fairly standard - black and white checked caps, white shirts with waistcoats - but the women's chulapas are gorgeous. Long, colourful dresses (especially red and white gingham) which flair out at the bottom in a big frill, white headscarfs topped of with red carnations and fringed shawls. The children in costume are just too adorable for words.

The choti involves the man standing on one heel, with the other toe used to steady himself while his partner slowly twirls him round, ideally to tunes from a barrel piano. Not the most dynamic form of dancing, but fascinating to watch. The men are supposed to appear arrogant (as well they might) while this is going on, but most of the septugenarians and octogenarians on the dancefloor only succeeded in looking a bit grumpy, while their ladies gyrated beamingly around them. We had the good fortune to witness a youngish couple in L-plates giving it a go, with three or four more experienced dancers offering instructions and demonstrations. Typically, this quickly degenerated into an enthusiastic argument between the instructors over the correct handhold, which only added to the entertainment.

If you're going to be serious about San Isidro, you have to get yourself up to Prareda de San Isidro, where the path is lined with stalls selling the classic traditional delicacies. Rather fabulously, these are basically pastries, doughnuts and biscuits of one sort or another. Rosquillas, listas, barquillos and churros - overall, a carbohydrate disaster. It was probably a good thing that Theo and I had not only breakfasted prior to our stroll along the parade, but were due to eat a delicious lunch cooked for us by David and Nataly shortly after, or we could easily have gorged ourselves into oblivion.

The pareda takes you to the ermita (hermitage) to honour the saint and, most importantly of all, the fuente - the place where San Isidro's spring springs. In view of things like the Mexican 'flu, we figured it would be a good idea to partake of a little free health insurance, so supped a generous glassful each. Very pleasant, too. Head and shoulders above the warm, sulphurous liquid we swallowed in Baden and the diluted blood-tasting stuff at Bath.

A free world music concert, Planeta Madrid, was the other event we patronised. We went on the Friday and Saturday night and saw Daniele Sepe & Brigata Internazionale (World Italo Disco - as gloriously naff and infectious as the name suggests); Lila Downs (Mexican songstress); Taraf de Haidouks (insanely fast Romanian gypsy tunes - somewhere between music and organised chaos) and Orchestre National de Barbes (Algerian/French - driving beats and preposterous dance moves. The band included a couple who looked like the Parisian equivalent of Morecambe and Wise, dressed up in Arab robes and turbans, the effect only improved by their thick-rimmed spectacles.)
The whole weekend has left us with this overriding impression: San Isidro rocks.