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When the daytime temperatures are so high you are compelled to stay inside with the blinds down all day it is wonderful to be able to enjoy top class entertainment outside at night. On Saturday 18th July we attended the Antequera Light Festival.
The theme of this year’s show was the tenth anniversary of Antequera’s dolmens achieving UNESCO World Heritage status; putting them on a level with the Pyramids, Angkor Wat, and Stonehenge.
Shows took place at five locations in the town culminating inside the Royal Collegiate Church at the top of the town. As we had arrived a little early we decided to start at the end and work backwards. When we reached the viewpoint in front of the Arco de los Gigantes we were treated to nature’s own contribution in the form of a spectacular sunset silhouetting the town’s church towers.
Inside the church Antequera’s history was presented by projecting walls of massive stone blocks, marble columns and Roman artwork with particular focus on the famous efebo statue, intricate Moorish tiles and medieval wall paintings onto the building’s own architecture. With background music and commentary, it was a massive sensory overload, typical of the high-class immersive shows we happily pay pounds or Euros to visit.
After walking down the steps of the Cuesta San Judas, dappled with blue light, we returned to San Sebastián Square, where we enjoyed, with our hearts in our mouths at times, a magnificent display with fire sticks and a fire wheel.
Inside the town hall courtyard huge, coloured globes representing the sun and planets were suspended above our heads. A band performed in front of a large screen flashing up images of World Heritage Sites, like one of those lists that come round on social media where you tick off the ones you’ve been to. Antequera Dolmens tick!
Finally, back at the beginning, San Luis Square, a DJ high up in the window of a building played music to the crowd below while the building itself was illuminated in a succession of bright patterns, like a giant kaleidoscope.
What a fantastic way to spend an evening.
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Arrival of the stork
The brick chimney standing among the derelict buildings by the station is once again occupied by a stork. A familiar sight in many parts of Spain, the white stork is a familiar feature of the Bobadilla to Algeciras railway (Mr Henderson’s Railway), their nests occupying every tall pillar, chimney and pylon along the route. When they take to the air, with their huge wingspan, they are reminiscent of a scene from Jurassic Park. But here in Fuente de Piedra we have just one pair and they have been returning to the same chimney for several years. I saw them last in May when they appeared to still have young on the nest. They were absent throughout the summer and early autumn. Storks usually migrate to Africa and sometimes even as far as India at the end of the breeding season and return in the spring, but many are now remaining in Spain throughout the year to feast off landfill. Males return first to check-out the nest, with the females arriving about a month later. As we spotted him in his lonely vigil in mid-December, the female should have arrived by now and their bill clattering should once again be resounding through the station area.
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