Live News From Spain As It Happens

SEVILLA'S world-famous April Fair, or Feria de Abrilis now officially open and the southern city will be a giant round-the-clock festival ground for the next 10 days.

Everything stereotypical about Spain springs unapologetically to life as loudly and colourfully as it can – flamenco singers and dancers, swirling polka-dot skirts, gypsy guitars and dashing Don Juanes on beautiful grey Pura Raza Española (Spanish thoroughbred) horses – and, in fact, is probably the only time and place any tourist can catch these all at once.

Carriages bedecked with flowers and flamboyantly-dressed women dancing the fast-paced Sevillanas are on every street corner, and 1,052 brightly-coloured huts line the city-centre streets selling traditional southern-Spanish food and souvenirs.

Last night (Saturday) marked the start of the long fiesta with the great 'switch-on' – over 200,000 bulbs lit up the city to declare the fair open.

The act of turning on the lights for the Feria de Abril is a matter of great prestige, and this year, 10 pensioners were picked to do so – five men and five women.

For Josefa, 92, it was a dream come true and worth waiting a lifetime for.

“I've wanted to do something like this my whole life, because I've seen the lights many, many times, but I never really thought I'd ever be the one to switch them on,” she said enthusiastically minutes before her big moment.