Sunday 23 October 2016

Day of the Dead

I'm easily confused!
There are TWO Day of the Dead celebrations this year. The first is on Friday 28th October at the Old Electric Shop, which will be a sit down feast of Mexican food, with cocktails and music. Tickets are £25, to include a drink on arrival.
And then on 4th November, at the Castle, there's another Day of the Dead celebration, with music, food, face painting and tequila! This one is organised by the Chamber of Commerce and is raising money for the Christmas Lights. The cost of the evening is £8.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Why is El Día de Muertos, a Mexican religious holiday, being celebrated in a small town in Wales? It sounds like an excuse for the locals to drink too much cheap tequila and eat pre-packaged pseudo Mexican-style food bought from the nearest Lidl.

And will all those fake Zapata moustaches, stripy blankets over the shoulders and sombreros bought at the fun fair last summer be politically correct? Is it really OK to stereotype the people of another country in such a way?

Andrew Williams said...

Hi "Anonymous!"

I'm one of the organisers of the Chamber of Commerce event. The event is a fund-raiser for the Christmas lights appeal. Just as a bit of background - I lived in Mexico for a year in 2004/5, have visited every major city (and most of the smaller ones!), and have returned every other year for the past decade.

I LOVE Mexico, and would never do anything to disrespect the nation, its people, or their beliefs. We have deliberately avoided using any cliched imagery or branding when promoting the event. We'll be serving a variety of drinks including local ale. The food is being provided by one of the top street-food vendors in the UK.

I also love Hay - and the idea that we are "a small town in Wales" (never mind that we're one of the most celebrated creative hot-spots on the globe) where the "locals" get wasted on tequila, presumably with pieces of straw in their mouths and saying "ooh-ar, get orf my land!" is rather offensive.

If you'd like to discuss this further, I run a shop called Eighteen Rabbit on Lion Street which sells a variety of fair trade artisan goods from around the globe, including many from Mexico. I prefer not to reply to anonymous comments online, but have made an exception in this case as I found your comments particularly inappropriate.

I hope you'll be able to join us on the 4th November for a fantastic evening!

Cheers,

Andrew

PS - I did post something similar yesterday but it hasn't appeared, so feel free to delete if this is a duplicate.

Anonymous said...

Hey Anonymous No 1 - get over yourself!

VforVendetta said...

One of the most celebrated creative hot spots in the world, or a colonised offshoot of Notting hill ? . Hay is a friendly place but the concept of "locals" these days seems mainly to refer to the talented(?) diaspora of the South of England. They
pop in for a few years raising rents and property prices and are destined to move on and discover a hidden gem in Umbria and continue to reap financial havoc like some mutant hipster locusts. As a local said to be last year "if you need a galvanised bucket Hay is definitely the right place to go "