La Feria Insular de Artesania (Antigua Craft Fair) 2019

[Captain Sensible]

9-12 May 2019 - The annual Antigua Craft Fair - 15 km inland from Caleta de Fuste, attracts around 200 exhibitors from all over the Canary Islands. Saturday and Sunday are the busiest days. Free Admission and parking. It's held at the Antigua Windmill/Cheese Museum site.

The announcement for the competition has been made today to design the poster.  That confirms the date. 

https://rtvaguacabra.com/noticias/la_fer...iador.html

[Captain Sensible]

Free buses will be going from Caleta de Fuste, Costa de Antigua, Corralejo, Costa Calma and Jandia.  Seats on the buses can be booked through a Tourist Information Office or a hotel reception.

[Captain Sensible]

The programme:

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

Spent 3 hours at La Feria on Saturday, very enjoyable. Lots of cheese tasting, and mojos and mermeladas. Some gorgeous hot almonds in crunchy caramel and what looked like olives but were actually pistachios covered in white chocolate (coloured green), scrummy! A cake that is best described as a Belgian bun with loads of cherries in a sauce in the middle completed my indulgences for the day! Certainly no room for lunch   

My first time of seeing a sign banning the use of drones!



Several of the 'cakes' available to buy by the slab/slice, the first pic is gofio, not sure what the one in the paella pan was but it tasted quite nice!:

 

[Captain Sensible]

We visited yesterday and had an enjoyable 3 hours there.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

From RTVAC:

The Mafasca Collective rejects the transfer of the Insular Craft Fair to Pozo Negro.


a-1-3 At a general meeting of the Mafasca Collective Foundation held on Tuesday, January 21, it was unanimously agreed to reject the proposal of the City Council of Antigua to move the Insular Craft Fair to the facilities of the experimental Farm of Pozo Negro . After assessing the arguments presented by the City Council for its transfer, he considered that the Craft Fair that he founded 32 years ago must remain in the surroundings of Antigua, since the FIA is more than a sales market assuming a meeting space around the culture and heritage of the island where associations, groups or schools, make the town of Antigua the cultural heart of Fuerteventura.

The transfer of the fair would be an economic damage for the sectors that it aims to boost, since when we acquire a piece of handicraft we are buying quality and exclusivity, a unique object that must be accompanied by the context, which would be lost in an industrial environment. In addition to eliminating one of the resources of tourist attraction that has the town of Antigua, which takes advantage of the promotion that takes place in those weeks and the name of the Fair to invite visitors to the island to know the towns of the interior of the municipality.

It would also eliminate the economic impact that businesses and restaurants in the area receive those days. Thus, we consider that all businesses in the nucleus of Antigua and the towns of the region will see their business activity resentful, canceling one of the Events that generate significant income for the development of the commercial fabric of the premises.

The security problems raised are rectifiable, since there is a technical report that determines the adequacy of the foundation for the installation of the infrastructure. In addition, in none of the previous safety meetings or in the evaluations carried out at the end of each edition held in the surroundings of the Cheese Museum, problems have been raised that prevent its celebration, improving in each edition aspects such as mobility, expanding parking lots and improving Free collective transport.

The success of the FIA is not given by the number of visitors or its size, it is based on its concept of caring for participants, its production and sales, details such as music programming or promotion among the youngest. All this was recognized in 2015 with the gold medal of the Government of the Canary Islands, and valued by the artisans who attend every year, the protagonists of the event. Thus, we believe that all changes in future editions should be aimed at the enhancement of handicrafts, to the improvement of the sales routes, to increase the dissemination of the cultural heritage that is in the hands of our artisans.

For all the above, the assembly of the Mafasca Collective Foundation, founder and co-organizer of the Insular Craft Fair, requested the City Council of Antigua to reconsider the proposal to transfer the celebration of the same, keeping it in the surroundings of the town of Antigua.

[Captain Sensible]

Antigua Ayuntamiento are looking at moving the Craft Fair to the Pozo Negro Showground because the facilities/security/safety are better than at the Cheese museum site.

[TamaraEnLaPlaya]

from Canarias7:

Manuel Hernández, until now an AM-CC spokesman and member of the executive who runs the City Council of Antigua, resigned this Wednesday from his areas of government in Urban Planning and Housing, as well as his mayor's act, for not agreeing to the transfer from the Insular Craft Fair to the Experimental Farm of Pozo Negro, according to Radio Sintonía.
The resignation occurs, according to the digital News Fuerteventura, after last Tuesday night the local AM-CC committee met, where it was agreed to maintain a "nonconforming position" with the transfer of the Insular Craft Fair.
A blow of effect against Mayor Matías Peña, who is finding less and less support for the controversial transfer, also rejected by the Masfasca Collective Foundation, founder and co-organizer of the fair.

from Tamara:
I misread the article I posted yesterday thinking it was a 'final decision'. In fact it was just one interested party's (founder & co-organisers!) position on the proposed transfer. I have to say I personally would like it to stay in it's location at the Cheese Museum, I think it would be 'lost' at Pozo Negro and loose a lot of it's charm.

[Captain Sensible]

The debate about where this year's fair will take place continues.  There has been another meeting at the Cheese Nuseum site and there is concern about the state of the tarmac at the site.  The current Cabildo and Ayuntamiento are blaming the thin layer of tarmac that was put on the site 5 years ago by previous administrations!

[TrickyFox]

Whilst I agree with Tamara in respect I would also prefer to see it stay at the cheese museum, does it not make more sense for it to go to Pozo Negro financially? No structure to erect, no infrastructure to alter (the roundabout), more car parking possibly.