What an incredible day today! The forecast was saying that there would be heavy rain but, as usual, it was wrong. If you live in Sydney for a while, you know that you can’t never trust the forecast. Instead a nice blue sky appeared from 11 am and the fronton of the Gure Txoko was dry (and properly decorated) by the time that we started the performance (~2pm).
When the cap de colla was calling people in their positions at the pinya (“cantant la pinya”), there was an unusual silence. All the members of the colla (and the nice usual volunteers… thanks again!) knew that we needed a lot of concentration to attempt the torre de 5. As soon as the upper floors started to climb, we could see that the tower was looking better than in the rehearsal, with almost no lateral movements. But what really made a difference this time was our small canalla, who didn’t hesitate and climbed smoothly and fast. It was their first time performing in public and they did a great job! Immediately after the tower, we wanted to repeat the 4 de 5 amb agulla. There were significant changes in the structure, to train new castellers in the tronc. However, the 4 started to lose its squared shape as soon as the dosos were on their position, which made it go down when the enxaneta was going to start the last three steps. Without discouraging us, we tried it again, exchanging the positions of some of the castellers in the tronc. Unfortunately, this time it didn’t work either and the enxaneta was told to go down when she had her foot already on the faixa of the dos. A bit sad because we couldn’t crown the tower, we decided to finish the performance with 2 pilars de 3 at the same time. The good news is that we have learned where we are facing the major issues and we’ll work hard to make sure that they are fixed for our first birthday!
In any case, the torre de 5 was something to be very proud of and the party was still on. Little by little more and more people started coming and the fronton became very crowded. There was not much room left by the time that La Pegatina came to the Txoko as a surprise for most of the attendants (thanks again, La Pegatina!!). They were received with an aurresku danced by people learning dantza (Tuesdays, 6pm at the Gure Txoko) and they joined us for some beers. Afterwards we all went together to their concert… but the FUN and the craziness of that part of the day can’t be explained here. You’ll have to join us next time if you want to understand how great it was.
We don’t want to finish without saying that it has been a great pleasure to collaborate with the Gure Txoko and the Casal Català… and, again, thanks to La Pegatina for coming to our party and making us have such a good time in your concert!
Castells: 2d5, 4d5a (id), 4d5a (id), 2 pd3 simultanis
