Bayonne Festival

[Patf]

Last Thursday we passed through Bayonne on the way to meet visitors at Biarritz airport, and there was some kind of festival going on. Most people were dressed in white shirt and trousers with red kerchiefs at neck and waist and berets. Does anyone know what was going on, and why the outfits? Pat.

[Rabbit]

Don't much about it, but people I worked with last year went and raved about it. The Fte de Bayonne is one of the biggest in the south west with lots of Spanish (or should that be Basque?) influence including, I think, Bandas. It goes on for 4 or 5 days and the nights are long ...... I think the outfits are just traditional local costume.

Rabbit

[Chrissid]

The Fte de Bayonne happens every year on the first weekend of August. It starts on Wednesday night and goes on until Sunday night, and it opens and closes with fireworks. The traditional dress is white clothes with red foulards round the neck and every year there are about 300,000 visitors just for the fte. During the daytime there are a lot of people with their children and I tend to take my kids on a Thursday. There is also a little funfair as part of the fte. There are Bandas playing all over the centre of town, all the time and there is a display of floats etc.
All in all, it's a HUGE piss-up and comparatively little trouble. This year there was one death (somebody fell off the Ramparts), one rape and a few minor disturbances with people having drunken fights, two guys falling into the river etc.

Christiane
www.francesw.com