Pamplona (EFE).- The town of Burgui has experienced another year the expected drop in the rafts. The Día de la Almadia festival pays homage to the now-defunct trade of the rafters who for decades transported down the river, turned into precarious rafts, the logs of wood felled in the Pyrenees.
The descent of the two rafts, made with logs linked together and driven by raft workers and raft workers who for one day revive this extinct profession, has taken place this year on a scarcer course of the Esca river, given the low rainfall this winter, which has not prevented the act from being carried out.
Once again in front of thousands of people who had spread out along the route, especially at the dam, the rafts have passed through the Esca as before, although only for a short distance to the medieval bridge of Burgui, and not for hundreds of kilometers as before, when the wood was taken to Zaragoza and even Tortosa to travel from there to other places by ship.
The Day of the Raft, Festival of National Tourist Interest
Declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest, the Raft Day has months of preparation every year, in which the Cultural Association of Navarros Raft Makers is in charge of manufacturing various rafts so that on this day thousands of visitors can appreciate what this was. trade, rooted in the valleys of Roncal, Salazar or Aezcoa.
Also, every year the Association delivers on this day the so-called “Raft of Gold” to pay homage to those people or entities related to the trade of rafting or to its dissemination or promotion, as well as to those people who stand out in the field of culture, sport, science or for its human value.
In this XXX edition of the Day of the Raft, the distinction has been given to two protagonists, the illustrator César Oroz, who has followed the tradition and has come down mounted on the first of the rafts dressed in the old-fashioned way, and to the Denomination of Origin Roncal Cheese, whose representatives have also occupied this raft.
In addition, on this occasion the act has been accompanied by the Association of Bell Ringers of Navarra, whose members have rung the bells of the Burgui church on Sunday morning.
As every year, and before the thousands of people who come to the small town on this day, a medieval market has been set up with food stalls and artisan trades, a festive setting in which there has been no shortage of musical performances, dances and the staging of the trade of washerwomen.