Valeria Aguilar sings at last year’s Feria de Sevilla dance and live music festival. Residents of central New Jersey will get to experience the feel of Spain’s traditional April festival when Alborada Spanish Dance Theatre presents its second annual Feria de Sevilla this month at Parker Press Park, Rahway Avenue.
The April 27 festival will celebrate Spain’s unique cultural heritage and will feature live flamenco music and traditional dances performed by Alborada’s professional artists.
Attendees will be able to experience Spanish culture through castanet and dance workshops, colorful ruffled costumes, children’s arts and crafts, food, drink and more.
The Fords-based Alborada troupe will use dance, drama and music to reveal the diverse and historical threads that comprise the multicultural fabric of Spanish culture.
“It brings the community together, because we get a lot of diversified people. And a lot of the children come because of the park aspect, and they can join in the arts and crafts,” Alborada Executive Director Eva Lucena said.
Children can make masks, learn to use castanets and gain an understanding of the rhythm of Spanish music.
“It’s a very educational yet fun afternoon,” Lucena said. In Spain, the Seville Fair is a weeklong cultural festival that features daily parades and nightly partying in decorated tents known as “casetas.”
Lucena said small tents will be set up in Parker Press Park to emulate the Spanish casetas.
She said that after Holy Week, residents of Spain gather together to drink sangria and dance the Sevillanas, a form of dance from Seville.
“Most of our students learned the Sevillanas, so the whole park is filled with students dressed up in flamenco clothes, dancing this lovely dance,” Lucena said. “They go through the whole park dancing, which is a beautiful happening because that’s what happens in Sevilla.”
“Everyone joins in. It’s a joyous thing.”
Live performances, a fashion show of Spanish costumes and more events are planned for the Woodbridge festival.
“It affords people [the opportunity] to go out with their families,” Lucena said.
Admission is free, thanks to sponsors AmeriHealth, UPS Inc. and BCB Bank of Woodbridge.
Lucena said the organizers have added more activities and vendors, and are hoping to grow the event into a full-day festival in the future.
“There will be vendors selling paella, cupcakes, beer and sangria, and possibly tacos,” she said.
Spanish clothing and other accessories, such as fans and castanets, will be available for purchase.
UPS volunteers will be giving out raffles and door prizes.
Feria de Sevilla is presented as part of the Woodbridge Arts Alliance Family Cultural Event Series. The alliance provides arts and education services to residents through public programs that develop, expand and promote community interest and appreciation of the arts.
“It’s a lovely day,” Lucena said, adding that township officials have been enthusiastic about the festival, and offered the park and a stage. “They are keen to do this every year.”
Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac described Feria de Sevilla as a “wonderful cultural event for Woodbridge Township.”
Lucena said the event is the only one of its kind in New Jersey.
“And with the exception of possibly one similar in Philadelphia, it hasn’t been done to my knowledge anywhere else in the states,” she said.
The event will run 3-6 p.m. April 27, with a rain date of May 4.
For more information, contact Alborada at 732-598-3979 or [email protected], or visit www.alboradadance.org.

