Mojácar will celebrate the San Isidro 2021 festival next Saturday 15th May, although due to the health restrictions the traditional “romería”, or religious pilgrimage, is cancelled.
For this year, Mojácar Council has planned a religious celebration which will take place in the Multipurpose Centre at 8.30pm.
At 9pm, also in the Multipurpose Centre, a flamenco show staged by Azahara Herrera will follow with a programme in honour of San Isidro, the patron saint of Mojácar, which has for decades recalled the locality’s agricultural roots and its traditional link to the rural world.
Azahara Herrera, flamenco dancer and choreographer, was born in Almería, although he has been based in Madrid since 2010.
He works professionally in the capital in the top flamenco venues and national theatres together with the major national artistic companies.
He studied at the Almería Professional Dance Conservatory and in Madrid he graduated from the “María de Ávila” Superior Dance Conservatory in the speciality of Spanish Dance and Flamenco Choreography and Performance.
In “El Ahora”, the show he is putting on in Mojácar, taking centre stage is traditional flamenco from a new perspective, at no point losing touch with its roots and artistic authenticity. It is accompanied by the flamenco singers Cristo Heredia and Antonio “El Genial”. The maestro José Bellido is on guitar.
The show is free, although Mojácar Council’s Festivities Department wants to emphasize that anyone interested in attending needs to make a reservation as due to the social distancing established by the health authorities capacity is limited and it is necessary to book a seat.
The San Isidro Fiestas go back as long as anyone can remember, when the “romería” was the main draw of the celebration. Then, there were horse-drawn carts and the children met at the fountain for a sweet “match”, which was settled by throwing meringues at each other.
The gathering has been kept up for years, but the missiles have been replaced by water balloons and the carts by beautifully adorned vehicles.
With minor modifications in keeping with new technology, Mojácar’s customs and traditions, chiselled over centuries, live on.
Last year it had to be cancelled and for this edition, families and friends will again be unable to keep the pilgrimage tradition. But the flamenco show planned by Mojácar council is of a quality that will leave no-one indifferent in the anticipation that next year it will, without doubt, be possible to get back to each and every one of the locality’s festival dates.
