The opposition PSOE has been critical in its review of the annual Feria which took place from October 8th to October 12th.
The spokesman for the PSOE, Ángel Ramírez, stated that the criticism was not just for the sake of criticism but was designed to spur the PP government into being more imaginative and that he was only echoing the sentiments expressed by many nerjeños.
Ramírez said that a great number of nerjeños were on holiday during the feria and it was only the good weather which prompted many locals to attend.
The spokesman added that the current feria site at the Los Huertos car park is totally inadequate for a community of over 20,000 inhabitants and that the schedule showed a total lack of imagination on the part of the government.
Many of the traditional celebrations do tend to follow exactly the same format or schedule each year, regardless, and there have been many comments on the subject both by participants and visitors. The Dia del Turista, Dia del Residente, even Noche de San Juan, suffer in this respect.
For a one-time visitor, such events are a novelty, but for local residents they become very ‘samey’ and attendance has suffered as a result.
Feria was well attended, or so it seemed, but not the seething mass of humanity experienced in the past and with a lesser population. Apart from the odd new fairground ride, and that’s not everyone’s cup of tea, either by preference or age group, it was very much the same as last time. And the time before that….
There are, of course, other factors involved. There is still an economic crisis, despite what the politicians say, and many, particularly the younger members of the community, view such things as feria as one long drinking party. Regardless of the rights or wrongs of such attitudes, price plays an important role and there is an increasing tendency for people to take their own booze rather than pay the bar prices.
The result is that the bars at the feria make less money and then they complain that the feria was not a (financial) success. Faced with the choice of paying €5 per drink or buying a bottle of booze and a bottle of mixer for about €7, you can easily see why so many take the latter option.
The more ‘traditional festivals’, for the want of a better description, such as Semana Santa, do tend to hold their own, perhaps because they are more ‘traditional’ and not party-based. Who knows?
Add to this the fact that, while many municipalities are increasing budgets for social activities and celebrations, this is not the case in Nerja, quite the contrary.
So, the questions remain, do local celebrations display a singular lack of imagination or not? What makes you attend, or not attend? Is the feria ground too small? Have your say!