¡Viva Aguascalientes'n! - Feria Nacional de San Marcos

I stayed for one week with Jonathan in Aguascalientes during the fair of San Marcos, Mexico's largest and most famous folk festival, held in April/May in the city of Aguascalientes. The festival was first held in 1828 as a livestock and grain market. It offers a variety of spectacles such as dances, concerts, theatre and breathtaking shows spread all over the city. In addition to Mexican folklore, bull- and cockfighting are particularly popular. At night, the party mile turns into Mexico's largest public drinking zone. Party people come from all over the country to turn the night into day. There is an unbelievable hustle and bustle, music is played from all sides, often no song can be identified at all, because Mexican banda music is played live from two sides, reggaeton and electronic music from loudspeakers from the other two sides.

In Aguascalientes I was joyfully received by Jonathan, whom I got to know some weeks earlier during the carnival in Veracruz. During my stay in Aguascalientes we walked a lot all week because Jonathan lives very well located to explore the city on foot. Furthermore we visited many places in his little pick-up, on the motorbike and also on bicycle.

The city centre of Aguascalientes is declared as Patrimony of the Nation by the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). It is characterised by buildings built between the 16th and 19th centuries among which are many beautiful churches as well as theatres and government palaces.

The Feria de San Marcos is also known as Mexico's largest canteen as you can drink alcohol publicly in a very large area which usually isn't allowed in the country. With more than 90 hectares of fairground perimeter, the National Fair of San Marcos has zones specially adapted for each one of the activities that are carried out in this zone. After sunset, the zone of the bars and clubs fills with party people. Dozens of Mexican "bandas" roam the streets and make a lot of noise with their brass music. Some people pay them to play specific songs and everbody starts to scream and dance. The discotheques try to attract people to enter their celebration zone and supermarket chains compete with bars, restaurants and street stalls for the lowest prices for beer and numerous other alcoholic beverages. Anyone can bring all kinds of drinks into this zone, they only have to be transferred into plastic bottles or cups, which are provided free of charge. This safety measure is taken to avoid riots.

What I found much more impressive as the party zone was the incredibly varied range of dance performances around the clock at different locations in the city. Just to give you a small selection: I visited a puppet theatre, dance events of contemporary dance and flamenco, an ice skating spectacle, a theatre performance on the history of the city of Aguascalientes, rock concerts, church music and many more. Many of these events can be visited completely free of charge and a large number of the events are priced at a few dollars only.

As it is part of every appropriate celebration, there was also a parade of different participating groups in Aguascalientes through the city centre. The slogan ¡Viva Aguascalientesn! has a long tradition and appears in the song Pelea de Gallos which is played a lot during the fair. It is said that the people in Aguascalientes talk in a way like that, finishing the word Aguascalientes with a nnnn.

As Jonathan is a contemporary dancer he had to take a few practice hours and participated in various performances during my visit. I've been busy taking pictures and making movies most of the time. Once, however, I was spontaneously promoted to the stage and I danced a round of Huapango, well, more improvised than anybody else, but I did.

One day I went doing excercise with Jonathan and his friends, which gave me the most intense muscle ache in the triceps of my life. It lasted more than one week and a few days I hardly couldn't move my arms at all. Aguascalientes literally means "hot springs", as the Spaniards found a lot of hot water sources within this region when they explored it. Nowadays most of them seem to have been gone. There is just one thermal bath left within the city which now has to pump up the hot water from a depth of several hundred meters. In addition to this hour of relaxation in the water, the following day we also indulged in a massage to further relax the muscles.

After one week of exploring the whole state of Aguascalientes I finally said good-bye. Bye to the delicious food like empapeladas or dorichaskas, two different ways of serving corn with cheese, chile and a lot of other ingredients. But most of the time we cooked very healthy meals in the appartement of Jonathan. Jonathan left his shop for dancing shoes and accessories behind as we were going on a small road trip together further up north. I bought some handcrafted shoes in the Mercado de los Huaraches, a market where you can find a dozen of shoe sellers, to give my feet a more pleasant journey and more open air.

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