A Little Goat and Many Falcons – Festa Major 2009, Day 5

In the Sunday morning, August 2, the smallest one of Vilanova’s three mulasses (giant donkeys) celebrated its 25th birthday with a cercavila where small monster animals (bestiari popular) from here but also from many of our neighbour towns were paraded through the streets, many of them by children and young teenagers. The birthday child herself is called la Cabreta (“Little Goat”), but her dance is highly energetic so it takes two adults to master her.



The afternoon was dedicated to our local Falcons – acrobatic human towers – and their guests from Northern Catalonia, the Falcons del Riberal (France). To gain audience, the two teams paraded down the Rambla – every now and then stopping to show some of their constructions – and then made magnificent entries into the plaça de la Vila. There, the junior Falcons del Riberal were the first to mount the stage, where a capdil 7de7 and a serra de 4 puntes were among their most remarkable numbers.



The Falcons de Vilanova rounded off the exhibition with a show meeting very high standards. Unfortunately, I fumbled with my camera and thus missed the impressive pira de 10, but I managed to catch other highlights like the escala de 9 (alternatively: capdil 8 de 9), the catedral, the typical 2 vols de 4 i 2 vols de 3 inpspired by flying birds and, above all, the pillar of four levels, erected from below and – at least for a second – net, i.e. without a support base.

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Technorati tags: Catalonia, Festa Major, Penedès, Vilanova