Thirty years of Aguapata: El Islote celebrates from 2 to 11 October, with bread, Canarian wrestling and sheep shearing

The Fiestas del Aguapata turn thirty, and for the occasion San Bartolomé council has put together a longer run than usual: from Friday 2 to Sunday 11 October, in the village of El Islote.

It opens with the contest

First up, on Friday 2 October, is the 27th Aguapata Contest — twenty-seven editions, which makes it older than the fiestas themselves. Then the parrandas Gurfines and Son del Norte play, and a historical photography exhibition about the village opens.

Saturday: woken by the batucada

Saturday begins with the diana, the musical wake-up through the streets, in the hands of the Batucada Guaychara. Through the day there is a bread-making workshop, food tastings, and a Canarian wrestling contest with local wrestlers.

Sunday: the old trades

Sunday is given over to demonstrations: tostijo and sheep shearing. These were daily work two generations ago and now survive almost only like this, at village fiestas.

Why they last

Mayor Isidro Pérez says these fiestas 'are an expression of the character and identity of El Islote'. The councillor for festivities, Estefanía Luzardo, urges residents to fill the village streets again.

Put plainly: a small village that has organised ten days of its own festivities for thirty years has something you cannot buy, and which does not come back once it is gone.