The Descenso Folklorico del Nalon is a summer-aquatic-carnival recognized as a Festival of Regional Tourist Interest of Asturias since 1991. This recognition has been possible thanks to its extensive history. The first Folkloric Descent of Nalón took place more than 50 years ago in 1968 and, after successive renovations, has matured to be as we know it today.
Year after year, the party is getting bigger being the participation figures counted by thousands. There are already several editions in which the 4000 crew and 40 boats are exceeded.
Every third saturday of August, thousands of people from all over Asturias and other places in Spain come to Laviana to enjoy our most international festival. The Descenso Folklorico del Nalon is already part of Laviana and it is recognized as one of the most relevant annual events of the Council.
Pre-Descent
Since early morning the festive atmosphere can be felt all around Pola de Laviana, and this feeling will last all day and night. Around the streets and in the shopping areas, neighbours and visitors start getting ready for this amazing day, some as active participants and others enjoying as watchers.
Activities and Music Bands
That same morning, the Descent Friends Association (NFD co-organizer) ot the Descenso Folklorico del Nalon has prepared activites and game for kids, like clows performances, ballon figures, and others. To kick off the fun, popular music bands, arrived from all over Spain, are marching through the town, putting smiles in everyone faces.
All this is happening while the floats are arriving to the meeting points from where they will start the parade.
Floats arrival
The floats arrival to the starting places is not part of the official parade, but still is a very good way to see the collaboration spirit that reigns in the council capital. There are floats made in Laviana, which need to drive through the streets to get to their staring point, and they get help from all the people around, and support from the efficient traffic control system agents. The floats can’t have engine according to the rules, and it may be difficult to move them in some narrow and hilly streets.
The «pre-parade» where floats navigate to their starting places for the parade is already a great chance for the visitors and participants to see the final results of months of work put into the floats, and enjoy the «charriots» in perfect condition before they go down the river.
Some other floats arrive from villages around Laviana that are quite few kilometers away. This requires a huge organization and strategic work, as these floats need to travel on local roads transit with cars pushed by the participans themselves. For this reason the floats need to be well engineered as they need to be resiliant to this trip without issues, and for that the participants work all kind of witty ways to pass on cables, trees, cars. Imagination is the main strenght of these groups, and the ingenous ones are to admire
Descent (Descenso)
The «Descenso» (Descent in Spanish) begins: this is the most waited moment for all the participants as well as the public watching the NFD. We could summarize it as around 50 floats (average participant floats during years) are getting ready in their starting point to kick off. The meeting points are in Mariano Menedez Valdés street and around, in Laviana’s downtown area.
Aroung 11 am the floats start arriving, like some early birds that come from farthest villages and they start their voyages even before sunrise. However, most of the vessels arrive between 1:30 pm and 3 pm.
Thousands of people, participants and visitors, enjoy taking pictures and participating of the music and revelry.
More info: Web El Descenso Folklórico del Nalón
If you want mor information contact Where is Asturias at info@whereisasturias.com