This year, attending the Pinolere Regional Craft Fair has a prize: participating in the raffle for a timple donated by Francisco Fariña, master craftsman of timples, resident of this neighborhood in the municipality of La Orotava and protagonist of the poster with his image working in the workshop. Added to this is a basic online course to learn to play this instrument and party led by maestro Pedro Izquierdo.
Both donated these gifts to the Cultural Association and it decided to raffle them among those attending the exhibition, which will take place from October 6 to 8 in the Pinolere Ethnographic Park and will be dedicated to the world of timple. “It is one of the main novelties of this year and a way to motivate the public,” says the manager, Jesús García.
There are three weeks left for the fair, which was scheduled to take place from September 1 to 3, but had to be postponed as a result of the forest fire that devastated the mountains of Tenerife on August 15.
The good news is that with the new date, the number of artisans has been maintained, which was one of the main fears of the organizers, that they were committed to other activities or events, as it is a regional action. “Apparently, the chosen date is good for everyone and 200 artisans from different parts of the Archipelago will participate, distributed in 160 spaces,” confirms García. These also include companies related to gastronomic products from all the islands and for the first time Aldea de La Palma rum will attend.
The exhibition has become a must-see event for crafts in the Canary Islands. Each year it addresses an artisanal modality or traditional trade of the islands. Under the motto Timpleros, a regional exhibition of timple-building artisans from the Canary Islands, this year’s monograph is related to this stringed instrument, unique in the world.
The only museum in the world
García recalls that the island of Lanzarote is perhaps the birthplace of the timple in the Canary Islands, because, according to oral tradition, they built and invented this sound symbol there; For this reason, the municipality of Teguise houses the only museum that exists, directed by the famous musician Benito Cabrera.
“In the Timple House Museum, not only is a large collection of timples exhibited, but there is an exclusive program of music related to this instrument,” considered an emblem of the Canarian identity, the manager emphasizes.
For this reason, this year the municipality of Teguise will be honored within the framework of the Fair, where the Diabletes, an essential tradition of the Lanzarote Carnival, will be recognized in a well-deserved tribute.
Likewise, the first meeting of timple players in the entire Canary Islands will be held and there will be complementary activities, such as exhibitions of timple collections, an educational demonstration of the making of this instrument or a timple “meeting”.
