Well considering that the British Fancy Dress Day isn´t until tomorrow - Thursday 14th November, the streets are already swarming with Brits in full party mode! The weather up until yesterday has been simply glorious, but the forecast for today and tomorrow is unfortunately on the turn - having said that it looks pretty good outside at the moment... lets just hope that it can hang out and stay dry, until the weekend at least.

The streets around the English Square have all been decorated, with flags and bunting suspended across the streets - the bars have certainly joined in with the festive mood. Last night driving through I noticed many revellers already in their fancy dress costumes... obviously wanting to gain maximum wear so starting early!

The Old Town was positively heaving with people last night, all out for the planned "humour parade" - unfortunately it was somewhat disrupted last year because of the rain. The street market on the Avd Emilio Ortuño was in full swing, with the smell of roasting chestnuts deliciously wafting through the air.

The Calle Gambo was lined on both sides with spectators, waiting for the 7pm parade - but as we all know with Spanish timekeeping, 7pm in reality means 8pm! It wasn´t a parade in the sense of floats and dressing up, but rather a parade of short sketches which were performed at intervals along the route, with each sketch taking around 5 minutes. Each group - and there were only 5, had a vehicle with loudspeakers so that the crowds could hear the dialogue - but there was a very cool reception from the spectators who had waited so long and complaints began to surface to the organisers.
They were all of the "Spitting Image" caricature type - with fun being poked at the Spanish political parties, inparticular local politics and obviously all in Spanish. Two figures that were particularly targeted were the Mayor Agustin Navaro and his deputy Gema Amor.

The second groups theme was about Gema arguing the case for Benidorm to host the 2024 Olympics, with the script broadcast in English. Gema was actually in the audience watching, and she appeared to take it all very well, laughing with the crowds - well she couldn´t really do anything else and even had a photo taken with her look alike!

The organising committee had to calm tempers of many of the spectators, who were furious that they has waited so long, paying 3 euros for a chair when it was a complete let down. Next year it looks like they will have to re-think whether to continue with it considering the low participation. The Mayor Agustin Navaro, who refused to attend already expressed his displeasure with this particular parade....

Today is the last day of the fiesta. There is a planned float parade (at 5.30pm) of all the participants in the Old Town and the grand finale is the spectacular firework parade, which is scheduled for around 9pm. One of the best vantage points is from the Mirador - lets hope it stays dry! Then tomorrow is the day which everyone has been building up to - the British Fancy Dress Day!