Tarraco Viva 2009

The Tarragona-based annual Roman festival ´Tarraco Viva´ returns. Now in its 11th edition and having become one of the most important of such festivals in Europe, ´Tarraco Viva´ launches almost 300 different events over 14 days (18-31 May) for the large public, Roman history freaks as well as professionals in the field, all done with the best possible didactic taste and drawing 1,000s of spectators. Ranging from gladiator fights over a food tastings tour in local restaurants, film screenings, talks, walks, workshops, open days at museums and archeological sites, re-enactments of daily Roman life, army and cavalry demonstrations and displays of Roman music, dance and theatre. Tarraco Viva - organized every year in the second half of May - has the ambition of becoming a festival on the scale of the arts festival of Avignon. Probably overambitious given Tarraco Viva´s specialist remit compared to the grand Cultural Festival that is Avignon. Still, Tarragona´s Roman festival is becoming bigger and bigger and more professional with each edition.

The first Sunday of Tarraco Viva (24 May) showed a display of things to come. Entitled ´Via Tarraco´, this event presented a series of snapshots of different re-enactment groups in the best possible setting for this kind of thing: the extremely well-preserved kilometre-long Roman fortifications surrounding the oldest part of the city, far from the hustle and bustle of the modern city.

Some samples from this year´s programme:

- Captio - entry into the priesthood of Jupiter and Minerva: re-enactment in Tarragona´s Colonial Forum;

- Veneralia - the cult of Venus: re-enactment in the city´s Roman circus;

- papyrus workshop led by a staff member of the Cairo Papyrus Museum;

- Novilissimus Dominus Meus: re-enactment of the reception of a Roman emissary at the villa of an aristocrat (villa of Centcelles, Constantí);

- Living History: international meeting of Roman re-enactment associations, with reconstructions of a Roman army camp, Roman legions of the early and late Empire and Roman cavalry;

- Ludi Gladiatori Pugilumque: the Italian association ´Istituto Ars Dimicandi´ offers a demonstration of gladiator weaponry and combat techniques in the setting of the Roman amphitheatre;

- Fairs: International Fair of Roman Museums and Archeological Sites; and a Roman Arts and Crafts Fair;

- In Coemeterio: re-enactment of an Early-Christian funeral in the cloister of Tarragona Cathedral;

- Scriptorium: Roman writing workshop - everything about writing instruments, letter types and writing paraphernalia in Roman times;

- Viae Romanae - All Roads Lead to Tarraco: reconstruction of a Roman station that serviced animals and vehicles along the Roman road system (at Tarragona´s Roman Aquaduct);

- Ars Medica: re-enactment of Roman medical practices in the setting of the Praetorian Tower;

- Carmina Canere: musical concert with Roman musical instruments such as the ´Tibia´(a Roman reed instrument), the ´Syrinx´or pan flute, the ´Crotalum´ (similar to castanets) and ´Cymbalum´ (cymbals);

- Sacra Privata: reconstruction of Roman domestic rituals - birth, coming-of-age and marriage ceremonies (in the Praetorian Tower);

And many more: for the full programme check out the organizers´ website on: http://www.tarracoviva.com/