Limoux Fécos / Carnaval 2008

Limoux is a large town due south of Carcassonne, and it holds a festival every year. No surprises there! I seem to have chosen to live in the land of fetes, carnivals, and festivals…. oh, and lovely markets. Pretty damned good I’d say …..

This Limoux Festival is quite unique – for starters, it’s a very long festival indeed. It starts in January and runs until two weeks before Easter, and is thought to date back to perhaps the Middle Ages.

Yesterday was a day of all the bands coming together in the square, so it seemed like a good day to head west. The square itself is very beautiful and today it looked a treat – as though it had been snowing :

But in fact it was the confetti that is traditionally scattered around by the dancers who wear bags full of it slung over their shoulders. So nobody escapes without being adorned with the stuff. Apparently over the duration of the festival, 7 tons of it is used! And as can be seen in the video clips below, nothing and no-one escapes 'les confettis'....

There were at least five groups of dancers on the go yesterday, each with their own band supporting them. And it was wonderful ..

So this post is going to be mainly photos and a few video clips. I’m soon going to update my camera so perhaps before too long the quality of the video clips will improve …

Here's a link that has a good deal of information relating to the festival.