Asturies gets the bags ready for An Oriant

Nothing more than a few days to start the biggest folk festival in Europe, the Interceltic Festival of An Oriant (Lorient), the organization with Jesús Adrián Rodríguez Álvarez at the front, has prepared a great offer of both cider, gastronomy and shows.

There are some novelties to previous years, such as the change from the usual cider Trabanco to natural cider from Contrueces cider mill. In addition to cider, at the festival you can try the Scone craft beer from Gijón and liquors from Monasterio de Corias. However, cider will continue to be the protagonist in the Asturian tent, as our visitors expect.

What they surely do not expect is the decoration that Adrián has prepared for us, with a Victoria Cross of almost two meters high that perfectly symbolizes our flag. As if that was not enough, the interior decoration is also by hand of the craftsman Pereda from El Berrón, exposing various traditional hand-made wooden works as samples of Asturian culture. To give an example, we can mention a door of a hórreo of nothing less than 100 years old.

In the field of entertainment, this year’s resident folk band in the interceltic festival will be the Asturian group Melandru, whose bagpiper some will remember for being the director of the Banda de Gaitas de Ribadeseya.

All this is carried out thanks to the great work of Adrián, his professional team and the unconditional support of the Asturian Delegation in Lorient as well as that of the Principality.

But within the novelties, the one that more calls the attention is a collaboration that will be made with the Asturies XXI Foundation, presenting the next edition of the International Hall of Gala Ciders (IHGC), carrying out a series of tastings of Asturian and international ciders inside the Asturies tent for a select audience. During these tastings, totally free, attendees will know the different particularities of the ciders of each country, they will be given the tasting notes and they will taste the best of the Asturian ciders that win the most international awards, both natural and brut, sparkling and ice cider: Castañón, Cortina, La Naveta, Riestra and Viuda de Angelón. Cider from no less than seven countries to know and enjoy.

In case you lacked incentives to come to An Oriant, this year more than ever music and cider go hand in hand.