Spain Events: Nava Cider Festival

The apple is king amongst the local bars and micro-brewers at this boozy Northern Spanish festival, held near the main cities of Oviedo and Gijon.

It is fair to say that (certainly in Britain, at least), cider isn’t exactly the world’s coolest drink. To utilise a handy stereotype, it is usually seen as the preserve of underage drinkers, strange old men and farmers speaking in comedy yokel accents.

Well try telling that to the hardened drinkers of Asturias in Northern Spain. In this region, alcohol made from apples is king, and there are cider bars all over the main cities (such as Oviedo and Gijon) and smaller towns.

The town of Nava, in particular, is absolutely mad about its cider – hence the Nava Cider Festival, which takes place in July and lasts for a liver-wrecking week every year.

The Nava Cider festival is one of the more boozy Spanish events, and while there’s a vague attempt to pretend that it’s all about local culture, the basic point of the whole celebration is to sit at a bar and drink until the head becomes fuzzy and the wife issues divorce proceedings.

It’s not just your average pint of Strongbow or Bulmers here, though – there is the element of tasting a wide variety of ciders from across the Asturias region. Plenty of micro-brewers get in on the act to create a cider smorgasbord in the bars that take part.

There are also plenty of competitions going on, with the brewers competing to see who can produce the tastiest and most popular potent apple juice, and barmen having a competition of their own.

The waiters and bar supremos face off by pouring the cider from the bottle as far away from the glass as possible. It’s a little like men do with champagne when trying to impress women who have caught their eye, but without the accidents when they seriously misjudge and send the drink all over the table and their trousers.