Wednesday 26 November 2008

ENG: The Last Castells of 2008

That I still have a lot to learn in the world of castells, human towers, became very clear last Saturday. The Bordegassos of Vilanova celebrated their ‘día de la colla’ with the Minyons from l’Arboç as invited guests. Since the most famous teams have already ended their season, the event managed to make it to the headlines of Catalan national press.

The Bordegassos were the stronger team this day and completed (descarregar) all their top castells: first a ‘5 de 7’, then a beautiful ‘4 de 7 amb l’agulla’, followed by a ‘4 de 7’. After that I was hoping that they would make an attempt at a castell of 8 levels, but instead we were presented with a pillar. A ‘pilar de sis amb folre i manilles’ (a pilar of six levels of people standing one on one, but with the support of extra people on the second and third level) was what I saw and I was really impressed, although the team members themselves did not seem to take it very seriously. “No it was ‘La puta d’oros’ and in fact only five levels”, explained a girl from the team. I will not try to translate the name, but have learnt that most colles have a construction like this - a castell which does not form part of the official score table, but is more of a symbol of the team.

Later on in the afternoon did an article in the Bordegassos’ magazine make me understand that some of the members are happy that the team now sees itself as a “colla de set”, a team which makes towers of up to seven levels. During the last few years, the team has tried to live up to its old reputation by every now and then attempting a tower of eight levels, but the results have been disappointing. The castell season is over and for having accepted being a “colla de set” the Bordegassos can proudly look back at a 2008 when more or less every performance went as planned.

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I made a lot of films and photos during the “dia de la colla” and one day I will up-load them all. To the irritating fact that Orange still has not managed to re-establish our high speed connection at home, a new problem has been added: I have lost my camera somewhere inside our apartment. Let us see what comes up when I look through my sons’ many toy baskets.

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Up-date: And here they are, finally: my YouTube clips from this event.














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Technorati tags: Castellers, Catalonia, Human Towers, Penedès, Vilanova, Wirdheim

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