I can finally have something to say when people ask me about all the flamenco I must be seeing here in Spain.
We all grow up with national stereotypes, and some people never outgrow them. Some friends are surprised when I tell them the Spain isn't all wall-to-wall sangria and tapas and "Olé" and running of the bulls and rain falling on the plains. Each region has its own culture and traditions. Think about it: Do kids in Toronto sing Barret's Privateers and Rita MacNeil in school? Do they eat pâté chinois in Whitehorse?
Flamenco just isn't part of the cultural fabric of the Basque Country. But Cafe Iruña in Bilbao, through it's architecture, menu and cultural events, is more evocative of Southern Spain than of the North. And for the last 25 years they have a series of events coinciding with the Feria de Abril, the week-long spring festival that happens every year in Seville.
Saturday night was a flamenco show. Three dancers, a singer and a guitarist performed a spell-binding show, bookended by willing (and less-willing) amateurs dragged onto the stage from the audience to dance by an enthusiastic member of the public in a bullfighter's suit. When the musicians left the stage, DJ'ed flamenco music gave the by then well-lubricated audience something to try out their own flamenco skills to. Thing were going strong when we left at 2.
Now all that's left is for me to see some bullfighting...
