| The EuroFeria
Andaluza was for the first time organized in 1992 by
the President of the Peña Arte y Cultura
de Andalucía, Manuel Ramírez,
and its committee. This year’s edition will take place at Elisabeth
Park Brussels, where all the previous editions have taken place,
with the exception of one in 1995.
The first edition, restricted to the community of Andalucía, was
a great success. All memories of this edition still live in our hearts
up to this date.
However, the beginning of this fair was laborious to organize, due to
the fact that the authorities were worried about possible damages of unforeseen
circumstances.
In 1993, the second edition, took
place in Laeken. This edition was organized
by a new group of the Peña. Not-withstanding the success of the
edition, the association was left with some debts.
It
was in 1994 when the organization of
the third edition was coordinated by Federico
Gallo (photo), who after new negotiations with IBGE,
Institute of Brussels for the Management of the Environment, was able to
retain Elisabeth Park up to this date. We thank the IBGE, more especially Serge
Juwet, who took the grate risk by entrusting the park to us as he
had our success and expansion. At that same time, the privileged support
of Jacques Pivin, mayor of Koekelberg,
and all its Municipal Corporation, encouraged our hopes and gave us forces
to recover the confidence in the project.
A mediocre and destabilizing result, mainly due to the atrocious atmospheric
conditions, took us to pause in 1995. In 1996,
proving wrong the legitimate fear that our fair would disappear forever,
we gained forces and the IBGE gave us the authorization to settle seat
in the centre of the Park Elisabeth. In 1996 the EuroFeria saw the light: a
complete success, 10.000 people, a
radiating sun, a friendly atmosphere, an incredible success and the door
opened to a demand for participation that has not stopped to grow since
then. More public and more participants were the result of the effort.
One more time, a future vision.
1996 was
also the year when we had the luck to meet Jean
Pierre De Keyn (photo), who had a project for a festival for the
Commune of Koekelberg and who, without any doubt was impressed by the fair,
decided to start a similar initiative oriented towards Europe. Thus, in
1997, the idea of Jean Pierre de Keyn to make a project with an international
participation supported by all the Municipal Corporation became real. The
result was the Euro+Feria = EuroFeria:
the perseverance and the spirit of renovation made us grow up with 20.000.
This was our definitive consecration. Our future definitively was marked
by an extreme success: more than 100.000 visitors in 1999, more
than 160.000 spectators in 2004, a complete success and of popular
and cultural enthusiasm. The support of Philippe Pivin, mayor of Koekelberg,
and his Municipal Corporation, continues being considerable. In addition,
the financial contribution of the Region of Brussels brings a considerably
cultural dimension to us.
In 2001 our organization EUROFERIA was
constituted like an Association that makes no profits (ASBL), with Federico
Gallo as President and Jean Pierre De Keyn as Copresident. The management
of this association respects scrupulously the spirit and the rules associated
to these kinds of organizations. Its members come from the Peña de
Arte y Cultura de Andalucía and from the Municipal Administration
of Koekelberg.
Nowadays, it is a proven fact that our fair is not limited to Spanish
Andalusian orthodoxy, although this constitutes the fundamental and essential
element. It is it also true that the fair is totally open to the realities
of Brussels, thus, opened to its cosmopolitan population and to the participation
of other European nationalities.
The collaboration with cities linked with Koekelberg gives us Andalusian
poetry with Sanlúcar de Barrameda (Cádiz), the Mediterranean
sun with the city of Hyères (Var) and the East wind thanks to the
city of Kolobrzeg (Poland).
Other cities have been united to us: Bastogne, Huelva, Almería,
Málaga, etc…
The
EuroFeria is a cultural, gastronomic and festive manifestation whose entrance
is free. The organization is nowadays run by professionals for the
assembly of stores, electricity, toilets, cleaning, etc. Only the secretariat
is still to a great extent voluntary.
At first, a lot of services were completely free for the organization,
but this has changed in the present: at the moment, it is necessary to
pay the invoices of the Red Cross, the Services of cleaning of the city
of Brussels, the firemen, etc. Happily, the IBGE give the park totally
for free, which allows us to balance our budget, thanks to the subventions
of the Region of the Capital of Brussels and to the inestimable logistical
support of the City council of Koekelberg.
We have the firm desire to maintain our course and to continue making our
cultural, gastronomic and festive manifestation into one of the more prestigious
of the Region of Brussels. |
