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Festival San Sebastian

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DannyBoy7559
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4 out of 5
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San Sebastian Festival

  • January 22, 2004
  • Rated 3 of 5 by Carmen from Fairfax, Virginia
San Sebastian Festival

Our first impression of Old San Juan was formed by the San Sebastian festival. (San Sebastian is a saint that had something to do with the liberation of Puerto Rico from Spain, if my research is correct.) The festival takes place on its namesake street every January, and according to the locals we spoke to, officially ends the Christmas season. During the day, there are processions of masks and such. At night, it’s one big PAR-TAY! That’s when we went.

The cab driver rolled her eyes when we told her that we wanted to go to Old San Juan. She knew what we didn’t, that it was crowded and traffic was a bear. But she took us (the cab ride was $10 from our hotel) as far as she could before we were just stopped in the backup.

The streets were packed full of people. You could barely move through some of them. But there was spirited music, and bands of musicians would skip through the streets playing their cowbell or drum or tambourine with the locals alongside clapping and yelling and "woo woo"-ing to the beat. There was one main stage area with local bands playing, and we set up shop there and tried to decipher the Spanish lyrics. (We think one song was about the many colors of tomorrow, but we couldn’t be sure.) While the locals salsa danced, we just moved to the beat. Meanwhile, we took a look around at the amazing Christmas lights that were still up (this was Jan. 17). It was a bit odd for me to be in shorts looking at Christmas lights! We also did some browsing at the tables set up by local artists selling their wares. Mostly, we tried not to lose each other in the crowd and get swept away into some bar.

The festival was a great way to take in some of the local culture and just immerse ourselves in the vacation spirit!

From journal Puerto Rico - There's a Shrimp In My Pants!

Festival San Sebastian

  • April 26, 2003
  • Rated 4 of 5 by DannyBoy7559 from 0, United Kingdom
Held in San Juan for a whole week in mid January, it is a mix of semi-religious processions, music, crafts and a massive street party. We didn't even realise that this festival was on until we headed into Old San Juan on our first night. The old cobbled streets were jammed with locals, mostly aged between 15 and 25. The music was loud with infectious latin beats, everyone was friendly, and the ladies were stunning! With Cubalibres flowing freely we danced and sang the night away hopping from bar to bar until the early hours.

From journal Viva el Presidente!

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