The Wingates of West Hampstead have had a week that took on a distinctly Spanish theme. Wednesday night, we saw the new movie “Volver” with Penelope Cruz. Our Sunday was spent at the Regent Street Festival, “A Walk Through Spain.”

The movie Volver was very good and worth a look. It is in Spanish with subtitles. It is the story of a woman whose life takes on events that re-occur in seemingly concentric circles. It also had the same added benefit for me of any subtitled film. By the end of the film, I don’t realize that I am reading subtitles and feel that I can understand the film’s original language.

The festival closed off Regent Street between Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus. Regent Street was a project of urban renewal in the early 1800’s. It was commissioned by the Prince Regent, later to become King George IV. It runs from the Prince’s residence at one end to Regent’s Park at the other. Regent Street has become the home of many flagship stores for the likes of Habitat and Hugo Boss. Mmmmm Hugo Boss.

At the exit from the Oxford Circus Tube station was a woman doing what can best be described as religious busking. She was standing in the middle of the pavement (here in England, the sidewalk is called the pavement) preaching through a speaker. According to her we should all forsake our pointless lives of blind consumerism and go to the Lord. She hadn’t gained any converts that I could see and would appear to be fighting a loosing battle amongst all of the fancy-shoe-and-handbag shops.

But to the festival.

The Street Festival highlighted the 14 different provinces of Spain. There were large tents showing off jewellery, artwork and artisans, local cooking and tourism for each region. There were also dancers and performers in traditional Spanish costume. I suspect that the traditional costume is more for festival performance and less for, say, running to the market for a packet of crisps (here in England, potato chips are called crisps).

There was an engaging, high energy performance by a toreador and his mariachi band. The bull fighter demonstrated to movements required to fight the bull albeit in a very comical fashion. The demonstration ended with a member of the crowd assisting by playing the toreador to the performer’s animated performance as el toro. For those concerned, only humans were harmed.

The most spectacular demonstration was of the human tower. The performers constructed a tower that was five people in height with a tower four people in height on either side. The lightest people, obviously, were on the top and in the towers we watched in the afternoon were topped by children that seemed to be no older than six years old!

All in all an enjoyable day that ended with a curry (here in England, a delicious Indian meal is referred to as a curry). For those who visit us, remember that you want to go to the Masala Zone with us, although that might count more as a sub-continent rather than Spanish theme.

Jared was so inspired by the performance,
he decided to start his own tower.