Carnival · February

For generations, Carnival was the most beloved festival in Cabezas del Pozo. It came in the depths of winter, when the fields rested and the whole village had time to enjoy itself. And it had a star: the vaquilla.

The vaquilla of old. A young man from the village would become the vaquilla, wearing poles tipped with horns, and go out to roam the streets. Behind him came all the young men, taking turns carrying it, stopping at every square and at each of the four or five bars the village had back then. Single and married, old and young, everyone took part. Children dressed in traditional costume, with shawls, headscarves and berets, and during those days small quarrels between neighbours were forgotten. It was, perhaps, the festival most truly its own.

The festival that went quiet. Over the years, the village was left with fewer and fewer young people, and Carnival stopped being celebrated. Parents and grandparents remembered it fondly, but those born from the 1980s onward never got to see it.

The festival that came back. In 2016, a group of villagers decided the village deserved to be full of life again, and founded the Asociación Sociocultural de Cabezas del Pozo, ASCAP. One of their first dreams was to bring Carnival back. They succeeded, and today, in their own words, it's a spectacular festival. Check ASCAP's programme each year.

It is held every year in February, on the traditional Carnival dates.

If you come during Carnival, you'll see something that goes beyond a festival: a village that refused to forget.