Today, a group of castellers cooked at the Gure Txoko a delicious lunch for 20 people. This is our small contribution to the cooking roster (the Txokocooks) that our Basque friends organise for their club every Sunday of the year. And there’s no need to say that it was very yummy and we were very happy to cook. After all, it’s thanks to this nice relationship that we could organise great events such as the Human Towers Fest, the AGM or most of our celebrations as a colla!

The menu consisted of gazpacho (cold tomato and veggie soup typical from Spain), fish with orange sauce and arròs amb llet (rice pudding). There will be more lunches to enjoy at the Gure Txoko, so make sure that you check your calendar and book the day either to eat… or to cook (yep, show off and share your amazing cooking skills)!

Finally! It’s sunny, we are full of energy, we can rehearse, life is beautiful. We can definitely feel that everyone came back with the batteries fully charged, because our rehearsals have become undoubtedly our best rehearsals ever! We had many newbies joining the colla, our canalla is becoming more and more confident and our pinyes, stronger. Just to show off a bit, here you have some nice pics of what we achieved since the beginning of the year… yes, we know, it’s an impressive tower and an impressive 3 with the pillar…

Let’s go castellers, nothing will stop us!

Summer is here and we want to leave on holidays in the best aussie way: with a nice get together on a Sunday and a BBQ at the beach. Although it was a very windy day and waves were pretty high, we did not hesitate to swim… and attempt some human towers in the water!

Now we stop our activity… but only for a few weeks! See you all again on the 10^th January at Hyde Park!

We only came back from the summer camp two days ago… and we all met again today! This is because we have been invited for the second year to take part of the annual conference organised by CATO to promote tourism in Catalonia. Once more, it was a great experience for us and an excellent platform to show the tradition of human towers to other Sydney citizens!

Unfortunately, the weather had been very bad for the 3 last weeks, which meant that we had no chance to rehearse for long. To warm up, we decided to meet two hours in advance and practice all the towers that we would do in our performance. Our idea was also to be able to build the pinyes as quick as possible, making it more like a choreography than a normal performance.

And we made it! The performance went very smooth and we managed to complete in record time a walking pillar of 3 (our first one in a performance!), a solid 4 of 5 and 2 of 5 and also a vano of 4! We couldn’t be happier of the outcome!

Performance:

walking pillar of 3, 2 of 5, 4 of 5 clean and vano of 4

We are just back from our third summer camp and everybody is already looking forward to the next one… because this weekend couldn’t have been better! We had everything: a huge water slide, a crazy rehearsal, a dirty gymkhana, a hike in the Blue Mountains, a delicious fideuà … and even unexpected “betrayals” from our teammates! And, above all, we had LOTS OF FUN!

On Friday evening, little by little, people arrived at Newhaven Parkhouse, in Bathurst (yep, this time we went to the outback!). After a (very) late BBQ dinner, some castellers went to bed, whereas those who were still not that tired played some team bonding games.

In the morning, after a solid breakfast with bacon and eggs, cereals and toast with Nutella (and strong coffee for the owls!), we had a “crazy rehearsal”. It included pom de dalt races, the musical chairs (human tower version, of course!) and even a pillar of 3 with a folre almost exclusively made of our brave kids! Since it was very hot, after the rehearsal the bravest ones jumped in the swimming pool, while the rest relaxed in the terrace. By then, the kiss killer was already full on and our “cemetery” was growing bigger and bigger with the graves of the castellers who had been killed with a kiss.

At lunch time we had the already traditional (and delicious) fideuà with home-made allioli (Pau, you know how to make allioli!).

After a break to digest such an amazing meal, the organisers explained that we were in 1871, taking part in the gold rush that changed the life of everyone living in Bathurst. We were representing the different nationalities who came to mine the gold that had just been discovered. For the rest of the day, our colla was split in 6 teams (Chinese, Aboriginal, British, Spanish, German and Italian) and fought to control the gold. We started with a “wet and dirty” gymkhana, were each team was competing with another team to win games that included either water or paints. Everybody had a blast playing the “hot potato” and the “trunks”, running an obstacle race with a very long water slide and being very creative in our “belly Pictionary” game. At the end of the gymkhana, we counted the points and everybody was astonished to see that a 7^th wagon was also participating in the race… and on top of it, it was winning!

But the secret team was not revealed until the night game (“Tails, Flags and Queens”) was over. To everyone’s surprise, there was a mole in each of the 6 teams, whose aim was to make sure that their team lost in every game of the gymkhana! And trust us, they tried really hard: they dropped balloons full of water, they took their time to record a live video of the obstacle race,  they were inexplicably clumsy, they drew pretty abstract pieces of art in their teammates’ bellies, they gave surreal answers to very simple questions and they even stole points from their own team… Thumbs up to the moles!!! As one of the organisers, my most sincere congratulations to you: you made our day much more fun!

On Sunday, after cleaning the house and saying goodbye to those who had to leave earlier, we headed to the Blue Mountains, to the Pulpit Rock lookout. It was a very easy walk, but the views from the lookout were impressive and definitely worth every single step that we had to climb up afterwards! It took us a while to get the right picture at the lookout, so by the time we reached Wentworth Falls picnic area, we were all starving. After the BBQ, the tricky-tracka song was the perfect farewell for an amazing weekend together.

Thank you very much to all castellers (and future castellers!) who came to the summer camp… and to the organisers who made it possible!!

Yes, we know you’ve been looking forward to this weekend since March. You were there… and you know you can’t miss it.

Yes, you are new in our “colla” but you heard so many great things about our last summer camp that you are now too curious… and you know you can’t miss it.

Yes, after all the effort we put to have an amazing Diada performance and a great Human Towers Fest (did we mention it was an amazing success?) it’s time to have FUN! … Yes, we all know we can’t miss it.

So make sure that you book your spot before it’s too late!

Watch this video: we know you’ll join us!!

This weekend, Castellers de Sydney have opened their doors to all Sydney citizens. Our idea was to bring to our neighbours the Catalan tradition of human towers and share with them our passion… and it worked!

Actually, the event had a turnout that even exceeded our expectations! This Saturday, more than 120 Sydney citizens came to the Gure Txoko, enjoyed the exhibition, learnt about human towers, their origins, attire, music and terminology. They also got the chance to experience first hand the thrill of taking part in a human tower, either participating in our workshop or as part of the pinya during our performance. They could talk to our castellers, who enthusiastically explained them their experience in our colla, and they also even got a virtual reality experience. And last, but not least, they could enjoy a delicious paella! What else could they ask for?

After all the positive feedback that we got (and the new castellers that we met there!) we can definitely say that all these crazy weeks of effort have paid off! On behalf of the Junta, we would like to thank you everyone who made it possible. So thanks…

• Videomakers for making excellent videos and flyers and promotional posters
• “paella cooks” for cooking one of the best “paella” that Sydney has ever seen
• “pimp the place” team for designing and creating an outstanding exhibition
• “teachers” team for making sure that everybody could try for the first time (and for some not the last!) how it is to build a human tower
• “look at me” team for doing such an amazing job in media to promote the event
• “high-tech” teams for creating an amazing set up of human towers videos and even a virtual reality experience!

But what makes us really happy is that more than half of our colla was involved in the organisation of this event. We couldn’t be prouder of it. Yes, colla, you are the BEST AND IT WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT YOUR HELP!

And again, a HUGE THANKS to the Gure Txoko for letting us use their space and open the bar for us. We couldn’t be more grateful and we look forward to future projects together!

Performance: 4d5p, 2d5, vano de 4

As it’s becoming mandatory after a great performance, yesterday Castellers de Sydney met at the Gure Txoko to celebrate the achievements of the Festa Major. The party looked really promising and we had a massive turnout. But it couldn’t have been in any other way, taking into account what we did only one week ago: our first full performance ever! We completed on the same day a 3d6, 4d6, 4d6p and p4, with many new members and two new castells in our register. This performance has officially put us into the panorama casteller and several Catalan digital newspapers and local newspapers published our achievements. But what makes us even happier is to see how every day our colla is becoming a real family.

Thanks to the cooks for preparing delicious pintxos and tapas to the Basque club for letting us celebrate it at the Gure Txoko!

It seems that it was only yesterday, but a whole year has passed since the last Festa Major in Sydney, organised by the Casal Català de NSW. Today we achieved something that one year ago we wouldn’t have even dreamed of! And we counted with the exceptional presence of Koales de Melbourne, being the first performance in Sydney with two colles castelleres. But let’s start from the very beginning, because this Festa Major had plenty of surprises, adrenaline, excitement and celebration time.

The day started at 10 am at Rodd Park with a nice hot chocolate and a traditional single vs married soccer game, followed by “balls de bastons” (a Catalan traditional stick dance). Yes, Sydney not only has castellers, but also very motivated bastoners! Exporting Catalan culture everywhere we go...

As soon as the dances finished, it was our turn to perform. The excitement (and some nerves) was huge when our cap de colla announced that we would start with the 3d6. We had been practicing this castell for months, climbing until dosos in a couple of occasions. But in the last rehearsals, the 3of5 clean was a bit shakier than what we would have liked, so we knew that this tower represented a big challenge for us. As soon as Pau ended calling the pinya, the segons climbed on top of the baixos. The tower looked very good; so terços climbed as well, followed immediately by the dosos. At this stage, the 3 had a very nice rounded shape and a full confidence in the tower suddenly took all members of the colla. Especially when we heard Pau saying “Elsa is in position, Ainhoa starting the 3 steps”. Wait… what? Our canalla is already up there? They were so fast that even before we realised what was going on, we could hear everybody clapping at the aleta and our enxaneta was already going down very smoothly on the rengla. And just like this we got our first 3d6 ever! No suffering, the pinya was a solid rock, nobody moved at all. All the rehearsals with pinya for the 3d6 paid off! It even felt a bit “too easy”…

With our confidence 100% back, we started building the pinya for the next castell. The plan was to repeat the 4d6 that we did in September, but with new castellers making more than half of the main structure. The castell started with a good squared shape and everything went quite well until the enxaneta was close to crown the tower. At that moment, everything started to shake and the terços and segons lost their initial position. Only with big teamwork from the tronc and a comparable effort from the pinya, the tower was completed, followed by the celebration of the whole colla. After all, repeating again a 4d6 -and with so many new members- was a big achievement!

On the third round, we wanted to try another new castell: the 4d6 with the pillar. We had done the 4d5p clean many times in the rehearsal, but we had never had enough people to rehearse neither the whole pinya nor the transition of the hands from the 4 to the pillar. In the previous castell, we had seen how critical it is to get a trained pinya and a perfect squared shape, so we decided to take it easy this time. For this reason, when the dosos were already climbing the terços and the squared shape of the 4 was lost, we decided to demount it and try again.

On the second attempt, the castell looked significantly better and dosos were fine until our two little girls started to climb. A bit too early, the castell lost its shape at the terços level, making its defence close to an epic effort from every single casteller. There were screams from the crouches in the pinya encouraging everyone to hold on, hands pushing upwards to hold the seconds, dosos showing an incredible balance and an outstanding performance of our little aixecadora who did not hesitate and stepped on the pillar, despite being our wobbliest castell ever. Being very careful to not touch the pillar, the four started to climb down, leaving a solid pillar of four. But there was no need to worry, because this pillar even turned, showing the skills of our pilaners and triggering a huge ovation the crowd watching us, now convinced that we were very close to complete our first full performance ever. As soon as everybody was back on the floor, the celebration started and everyone hugged each other, with the biggest smiles we had on that day.

But the performance was not over (yet!). As we said at the beginning, we were very lucky to have Koales de Melbourne with us and we were all looking forward to the first brotherhood tower (or castell de germanor, as we call it in Catalonia) between the two Australian colles. No need to say that our first 4d5 was a success and we hope that we’ll repeat it very soon. We completed the performance with a vano de 4, also together with the Koales. Castellers de Sydney would like to thank the koales who came all the way from Melbourne and helped us making this day unforgettable. We are looking forward to our next performance together!

Looking back at the pictures of the last Festa Major, it’s impossible to not smile and feel proud of what we achieved in one year. Not only because our aixecador and enxaneta in 2017 are now dosos (and our new enxaneta and aixecadora are just amazing), but also because we managed to make exactly the same performance…but one level higher! And, what is even more important and makes us feel very proud is that our colla is now more than 3 times larger!

We can’t be prouder of our colla! Congratulations, castellers!

Let’s celebrate it soon at the Gure Txoko!

Castells: 3d6, 4d6, (id)4d6p, 4d6p, 4d5 germanor, vano de 4

If you have been checking our Facebook page, you must have seen that over the last few months we have been having amazing pictures of our rehearsals and our events. Really really cool stuff, which could only be done by a professional photographer.

Because yep, it happens that we have one and he is GOOD. For the obvious reasons, he would never appear in any of the pictures… but we should definitely acknowledge in a post the guy who is making us look sooo great!

And any reason is a good reason to show some nice pictures of our most recent rehearsals, so here we go. Yes, we keep growing, but we need more and more people coming to the rehearsals. Let’s hope that these photos will also help!

From the spectacular picture of our 4d6 in September (which was even published in the newspapers in Catalonia) to the moving images of the rehearsals, HUGE THANKS to Joel, for your time and effort!