Another town on Spain’s Costa Almeria cancels this year’s fiesta plans

VERA has become the latest Costa Almeria town to announce it is cancelling big fiestas lined up for later this year.
The council’s Festivities councillor Amparo Garcia said that it was with “great sadness and regret” that due to the “uncertainty created by the current coronavirus health crisis” the administration had decided that the town’s Virgen de las Angustias celebrations and the grand Moors and Christians procession will not go ahead in early June as had been planned.
The councillor explained that the State of Alarm measures currently in place would prevent the events from being held, commenting, “while it is possible that by then some of the restrictions will have been lifted, everything points to that it will not be possible to celebrate the fiestas as normal, hence we have decided to suspend all the programming in the exercise of responsibility and prevention.”
Vera has staged the Virgen de las Angustias fiesta since 1888, when it was held to mark the 400^th anniversary of the Christian reconquest of the town. The municipality’s Moors and Christians procession is a very recent addition to the celebrations: this June’s would have been its seventh year.
Vera Moors and Christians Cultural Association President Jose Manuel Ramirez Hidalgo commented on the disappointment at having to cancel the event.
He pointed out the event represents an important tourist attraction and an important source of income for local businesses, but added that the decision to cancel had been unanimous.
“It’s hard, but necessary,” he said.