In the long weekend of 7, 8 and 9 Oktober (the ninth being the Día de la Comunidad Valenciana) La Nucía will hold its fourth Exponucía in the enormous sports complex Camilo Cano. What started as a local trade fair has grown into a big event that attracts every year more people from the whole county. 
More than 80 companies and businesses set op their stands in the main hall and outside there will be areas with new cars, a children’s playground and a big marquee housing the Oktoberfest (German beer festival). And this year as a novelty also an original craft fair of Amata, the same association that has been organising the well known medieval market in La Nucía.
For the first time some twenty or more craftsmen and women will set up shop in Exponucía, offering a wide variety of quality hand made goods, from traditional pottery to wooden and soft toys, from lamps made of drift wood to ceramic castles, and jewelry of many different materials: silver, macramé, leather, wood, silk and glass. All different and all hand made.
Amata has spent the last 20 years or so organising markets as a way of helping to preserve the arts and crafts in Spain. Amata takes a careful look at people wishing to take part in one of its markets and selects for quality and originality. They use the words Artesanía de Autor® to announce their fairs, to make sure that nobody is in doubt about the originality of all that is on sale: the “author” is present in each and every stall.
Through careful selection – not only for quality and originality, but also to avoid too many stalls offering similar products – Amata guarantees a quality market. Many stallholders bring along their materials and tools so that they can work during the market – an interesting way of getting to know how things are actually made. Often small alterations or additions can be made to suit the requirement of the visitor.
That’s why the craft part of Exponucía promises to be very interesting. The visitor can see with what care and love each object is made, and how much time and skill is required – here a man working with clay and there another will be carving wood or bone, or a woman working with macramé or copper wire and semi-precious stones to make original jewelry. You can even have a go at a potter’s wheel and make your own little bowl to take home. It’s all there, to be seen and remembered.
Exponucía opens to the public on Saturday 7, Sunday 8 and Monday 9 (bank holiday) October from 10 am to 9 pm. The sports complex is called Ciudad Deportiva Camilo Cano and to get to it, you drive from Benidorm to La Nucia, and where you turn normally left to the Sunday Rastro, you turn right and follow the signs. Entrance is free and, being a sports complex, there is ample parking space. For more information you can call 639 979 678 (English spoken), or look at www.amata.es.
