If there is one thing that every person in Alicante enters in the diary it is the Moros and Cristianos festival.
As with a large number of the Spanish Festivals the Moros and Cristianos is celebrated throughout the whole of Spain but in Alicante it is a large and colourful spectacle.
In Alicante the festival starts with a huge parade with people dressed in the period costumes of the Moors and Christians.
This procession weaves its way through the streets to the sound of beating drums and screeching pipes and culminates in the re enactment of battles between the warring Moors and Christians.
These days the festivals and battles are held in good humour and again the principle focus of the event is eating, drinking, singing and dancing.
To see the best re-enactment of a battle head for Alcoi where each year a careful and fully planned battle takes place.
This is a serious battle and involves people dressing up in both elegant Berber costumes and as the traditional land working peasants who used to go off and fight for the rights and beliefs of the Spanish.
This battle at Alcoi doesnt involve mock retreats and comic gestures but does involve the clever use of fireworks, smoke bombs and even the death screams of those taking part in the re-enactment.
The people acting in this battle spent many hours, weeks and months preparing for the big day and you will find that there is an enormous amount of attention to detail. Sometimes the heat of the battle gets a little too much and some of the action can get pretty rough but generally everything remains amicable enough.
