This week Sevilla gears up for its biggest event and already streets are being shut down to traffic, and THE CHAIRS have appeared. Every single day during Semana Santa thousands of the world’s most uncomfortable folding chairs are set up along the Carrera Oficial parts of the procession routes and every single night they are taken down again and stacked up… and repeat. Unless you snag one of these babies. Below is a blocked off section just for three comfy chairs (front row of course) with enough leg room to put up a table (stored behind). I’m guessing they bring their own refreshments for the duration.

Meanwhile the rest of us don’t get to see anything along the Carrera Oficial and instead look for vantage points along the “unofficial” routes. When I first moved here in 1993 there were fewer chairs and those eye-level red and black barriers you see behind the chairs didn’t exist. Those have since been put up so that the general public who can’t afford to buy chairs for the week CAN’T SEE ANYTHING along the Carrera Oficial, which to me seems quite mean.

Just one of many changes over the years. These days it’s hard to remember when you could just pop out to see a procession. I mean, it was always super crowded but 30 years ago it was mostly locals who thronged to the various barrios to see their favourite cofradias. Lately Semana Santa has become just another heavily promoted tourist attraction and, to me, has lost a lot of its essence. Heck, I’m not even religious but my first experiences of the processions moved me in ways I can’t explain. Now (or at least the last time I ventured out) it’s like Disney does Easter in Seville. Think I’ll stay home this year.

Ran into this procession on my way home from a tapas tour. With record numbers of mostly maskless people crowded together in the streets I won’t be going out to see any processions on purpose this year. Dreading the indoor mask mandate being lifted next week…