The most desired Bando de la Huerta

It is not just any parade, it is not in vain that it comes to make up for lost time in the last two years, caused by the appearance of SARS-CoV-2, a coronavirus that has had the entire world in check, causing the pandemic that has already been reported. it’s starting to come out.

About eighty floats, some in which typical scenes will be represented and others from which products from the garden will be launched, and which will go to the queue, will participate this afternoon in the parade of the Bando de la Huerta de Murcia, which will begin at 5:00 p.m. on Calle Mozart in the Carmen neighborhood and will end in Plaza Juan XXIII, after touring the city’s main thoroughfares. If time allows it.

The person in charge of the Bando in the Federation of Peñas Huertanas, organizer of the most important event of this traditional Murcian celebration, Juan José Gallego, explained yesterday to LA VERDAD that “the illusion and the desire” are in abundance after two years of pandemic and that Neither the bad weather of the last few days, nor the carriers’ strike «or anything» have been able to beat them. Because to have everything ready they have worked the hours that the day has allowed.

The orchard procession will be “a little longer than other years” and nothing will be repeated in it compared to previous editions, said the head of the Federation, who indicated that it has been divided into two different areas: the one that will show the prints or traditional scenes of the garden and the one that will give away typical products among the spectators.

Festive women from Alicante, Valencia and Castellón, representatives from Ciudad Real and Burgos, invited this year, pose with the Murcian delegation in the Salitre garden. /

JAVIER CARRION / AGM

Gallego highlighted today’s parade, a holiday in the Murcian municipality, the recovery of “prints or scenes” typical of the garden that had not been out for years. For example, a float will show the raising of silkworms and how this material was collected and subsequently worked; another in which a master craftsman will make esparteñas, “which had not been out for a long time”; and a third with Patiño’s boyfriends, in which they and their relatives and guests will wear the typical costumes with which they married in the garden in the 19th century.

«There will also be a nod to the Mar Menor, to the Week of the Huerta and the Sea of ​​Los Alcázares, and to the salt tradition of San Pedro del Pinatar; and we will show how the paprika peppers were dried in the threshing floor and, later, they were ground in an artisanal way”, added the person in charge of the huerta, who highlighted that the popular huerta games, such as bowling, will also have a specific float.

Manuel Baena, better known as MAN, who gave life for many years to the singular character from the huerta, Tío Pencho (‘El Perráneo’) in the historic comic strip published by LA VERDAD, will have a float to honor his work. He will take number ten in the parade.

The elderly of the municipality will have their own presence with the Queen of the Third Age float (from the Murcia Senior Center Federation); as well as that of another very orchard trade, that of bobbin lace, which will be represented by the Bolillo float, from the Amigas del Bolillo Association. There will be no lack of participation of folk groups from the municipality and other towns in the Region to liven up the parade, such as those arriving from Mula, Totana, Yecla, Calasparra and Jumilla, among others.

“We wanted to give quality above all and try not to take too long and be pleasant for those who contemplate it,” said Gallego, who wanted to highlight the collaboration and “hand-in-hand” work that they have maintained with the Local Police, so that everything proceeds without incident.

«We know that people are very eager, like us, seeing how they have filled the barracks and how they watched the children’s band on Sunday afternoon; It was impressive”, concluded Gallego. Never before had there been so many boys and girls dressed as huertanos witnessing the parade of zagales and zagalas.

The procession will open Caballistas with the flags of Antonio Fuentes (La Palma de Cartagena), the giants and bigheads and Tío de la Pita, the pennants of the orchard clubs and the commemorative float of the 40 years of the Federation of Orchard Clubs.

In five floats, located in the final third of the procession, the Courts of Honor of the Child and Senior Queens of the Huerta de Murcia will parade, as well as the one that will carry both queens. The Federation of Peñas Huertanas, the Cruces de Mayo (Cabezo de Torres) and the Estrella de Levante beer company will also have their own floats.