The San Ginés festival is, together with Los Dolores, one of the most anticipated celebrations on the island, both because it is the patron saint of the capital and because of the dates on which the saint is commemorated, in the middle of summer, and which encourage participation in the numerous events that are organized.
From August 12 to the 26th of the same month, the capital of Lanzarote will host numerous tournaments and activities of various kinds, from traditional sports such as wrestling and Canarian ball to the famous football, passing through activities as genuine as the "jolateros" or the "cucaña". There will be fun days for children with the popular sack races or rope jumping, barbecue, exhibitions and musical encounters marked by folklore and modern music.
Reunions with tradition are probably one of the biggest attractions of these dates, as they give young and old the opportunity to share the typical practices of the people of Lanzarote, preserve them and show them to those who do not know them. On the other hand, appointments with new artistic and social trends also have the interest of those who participate in them and those who contemplate them for the first time.
In this way, the San Ginés festivities have managed to offer citizens varied options for leisure and culture, thanks to some initiatives that have progressed in recent years.
The legacy of tradition and the sea
The jolateros, an activity with history
The marine tradition of the jolateros is exclusive to the island of Lanzarote, more specifically to the Charco de San Ginés. It has been maintained largely thanks to the efforts of La Casa del Miedo for 25 years, when the association changed its location.
This practice consists of navigating small boats with capacity for only one person and in which the hands or "flippers" are used to row. The boats were traditionally made with available materials: tin drums, wood and tacks. Today, the technique remains the same, although it is more difficult to obtain the materials. As José Tabares explains, children like classic jolateros: "I once made one for my son out of aluminum, and it was very beautiful, but he didn't want it. Changing the materials doesn't work, because then they are no longer jolateros," he says.
This activity amazes both children and adults, and even some tourists have tried to participate. "The youngest child to participate is about 10 years old, but there is also the lifelong fan who, even at 70 years old, dares to," says Tabares. Those who participate usually have their own boat and wait for the few opportunities they have a year to throw them into the pond.
You can enjoy this activity in the Charco de San Ginés on Saturday the 21st at 12:00.
La cucaña marina, the skill on the mast
The recreational activity of the cucaña marina has its origin in the Italian port of Naples approximately 500 years ago and consists of sliding along a pole placed horizontally over the sea, and trying to reach the farthest end from which a flag must be rescued. The complexity of the task lies in the fact that, unlike other places where it is also practiced, the Lanzarote custom is to place the pole on board a barge instead of fixing it from the edge of the dock, imitating the mast of the sailboats that was originally used by knocking it down on the boat.
La cucaña marina is an activity that is carried out mainly during the festivities of the coastal towns of the island and in which mainly children and young people participate, by ages. Initially it was practiced in the Muelle Chico de Arrecife, but like the rest of the activities in this area, it was welcomed and promoted by La Casa del Miedo, and moved to the Charco de San Ginés, where it will be practiced on Sunday the 22nd at 2:00 p.m.
The barges, a blind sport
The usual barge regatta is presented as in previous years along with two other types of competition, blind regatta and night regatta. Both modalities are quite recent, and are still being carried out thanks to the good reception they had 3 years ago.
The first is possible thanks to participation in pairs, so that while the one who handles the oars is blindfolded, his partner has to guide him by means of indications to direct the barge towards the goal. The night regatta, on the other hand, takes place individually, starting from the Antiguo Parador in the bay of Arrecife and arriving, already at night, at the Charco. This year the regatta will be on Tuesday the 17th at 9:00 p.m. and the blind regatta on Sunday the 22nd at 1:00 p.m. next to the Casa del Miedo.
Although the City Council provides a small number of barges, in this case it is also most common for each of those who participate to have their own. These boats can remain immobile during the rest of the year and are only preserved for this purpose.
The coexistence between urban rhythms and folklore
Urbanfest, an event that repeats
"Urbanfest" is the urban culture festival that had its first edition last year and includes the realization and exhibition of different artistic expressions, sports, dance and fashion, in addition to a series of concerts. This initiative promoted by the Arrecife City Council and the Cabildo de Lanzarote in collaboration with businesses in this cultural sector, expands its ambitious project to generate alternative activities focused on youth with the segmentation of the event into three categories; "Urban Rock", "UrbanDance" and "ElectroUrban".
This differentiation can include both the rock concerts that had been customary for about ten years during San Ginés, as well as the hip hop performances that started more recently, as well as electronic music, introduced last year in the previous edition of the festival. Groups such as Delorean or Tote King have already passed through the stages of "Urbanfest" last year and this year the Lanzarote natives Zürych, Fuel Fandango and The Pinker Tones, from Barcelona, will be present during the 20th, 21st and 22nd at the Recinto Ferial.
Thanks to the great reception it had last year, Urbanfest is added again to the activities of San Ginés, and to the rest of the meetings in the same areas that are increasingly being arranged on the island throughout the year.
Within the musical activities of the festivities, many may miss the classic San Ginés festivals, although they may find comfort in the dances and Latin rhythms of a new celebration programmed as the closing of the festivities prior to the religious services and the quinario, the one baptized as Fiesta Latina. Being a totally new event in the San Ginés program, it has aroused the curiosity of many. Scheduled immediately after the Alejandro Sanz concert, the dance will feature several performances by Latin orchestras from different places, including Cuba, which will liven up the atmosphere throughout the night at the Arrecife Fairgrounds.
Folklore, the art of a lifetime
Canarian folklore is characterized by its music, its dances and its costumes elaborated to the detail, elements preserved almost intact through generations largely thanks to the work of groups and associations.
The International Festival has been organized since 1994 by the Arrecife Coros y Danzas Folk Group, which arose precisely on the occasion of the San Ginés festivities more than 50 years ago, initially as a simple meeting of friends. Currently it has been held in the Recinto Ferial, but it was another of the events that were enjoyed in the center of the capital, in the Charco.
This event exhibits each year the most legitimate elements of the history and tradition not only of Lanzarote but also of the rest of the islands, the peninsula and in the same way it has also hosted performances by groups from Albania, Mexico, Palestine or Senegal in the last two years. And it is that the Canary Islands is not only a point of passage between continents, it is also a nexus of cultures.
But the international festival is not the only appointment with the folklore of the celebrated Sangineles. In parallel to this event and already in its XXI edition is the Campesino Festival, promoted by the music and dance group from Lanzarote, Los Campesinos. With the same task of bringing together talent and tradition, this festival, unlike the international one, focuses more precisely on the geography of the islands. Thus, this year it presents its project "Toques", in which they approach the culture of El Hierro, from the other end of the archipelago. A show designed and directed by the musician Benito Cabrera that features images from the video creator Rodrigo Cornejo, and conceived for the commemoration of the Bajada de la Virgen de los Reyes.
An attempt to bring the historical traditions of El Hierro closer, dances and songs that have a moment and a place of origin, and that have influenced the other islands. Not only music and dances, but a whole exhibition of the tradition of El Hierro thanks to the new possibilities of projecting representative images such as the Garoé or the Orchilla Lighthouse, the Roques del Salmor, videos and voice-over.
First, the hosts, Los Campesinos, directed by Miguel Ángel Corujo, will perform, and later the guests of honor with their show Toques. The event will take place in the Arrecife Fairgrounds, on Saturday the 21st at 9:30 p.m., and the next day at the same time and in the same place the International Festival will be held.
Las Habaneras, a meeting of music from the sea
Habaneras are the songs and melodies that have their origins in Cuban music at the end of the 19th century. They are a genre known in a large part of the country, although due to the migration flows between the Archipelago and Cuba in the past, its notoriety in the islands is stronger. The context in which they develop also greatly favors their enjoyment, as they can be witnessed next to the Charco de San Ginés, in a setting facing the sea.
The influx of public has been thousands of people in the last two years. "The atmosphere is calm and pleasant, there is hardly any picaresque" says José Tabares, so that despite the scarce police surveillance it is possible to maintain order.
They have been celebrated for five years now, with a marked marine influence and this year the Amigos de Portonao de Arrecife and Orillas del Son, from La Palma, will attend. On Monday the 23rd of this month they will be back next to the Charco from 9:30 p.m. to liven up the atmosphere.