“This year the Pinolere Handicraft Fair will be face-to-face, I do not contemplate any other option,” said the mayor of La Orotava, Francisco Linares, yesterday during the presentation of the poster for the XXXVI edition of the exhibition, for which 176 have already been received. requests for participation from the entire Canary Islands.
Under the title ‘Dreams on paper and cardboard’, the meeting will take place on October 8, 9 and 10 at the Pinolere Ethnographic Park under a strict anti-Covid-19 security protocol. The organization decided to postpone the usual calendar (the first weekend of September) and move the show to the second of October to guarantee its celebration and not have to be suspended a few hours after its start, as happened last year.
“Contagions are not in crafts or culture, but in other places where there is no control and cultural events follow all the required protocols,” said Linares, who asked for “support and understanding” from all administrations so that the fair is done. In this sense, he emphasized the “three legs” that make up institutional support, such as the City Council, the Cabildo and the Government of the Canary Islands (although no representative attended) since it is a sector that must be helped and protect because it is one of the worst times during the crisis. “The 2020 thing cannot be repeated,” he insisted.
The president was accompanied at a press conference by the insular counselor for Socioeconomic Development, Carmen Luz Baso, the president and the manager of the Pinolere Cultural Association, Leoncio Luis and Jesús García, respectively, and the village artisan Maru Pacheco, author of the image that illustrates the poster of this edition.
The counselor also agreed with the mayor on the importance of public administrations getting involved and showing their support for the sector since it is not only an important activity in terms of culture, ethnography, heritage and our traditions, but also because it is an industry that moves the economy. “And it is also sustainability, as reflected in the theme of this edition,” he stressed.
For his part, Jesús García announced that the fair will also be held virtually in the domain www.pinolere.es. It will be a showcase for all the artisans participating in this edition who will be able to interact with buyers in a comfortable, simple way and even attend to their request for personalized products in greater detail. In addition, there will be a link to the Digitalizarte virtual Fair within the SESEO Canarias platform, which will also be present in person at the Fair.
The doors of the enclosure will open at 10:00 a.m., although the official opening, by the local, island and regional authorities, will be at 12:00 on the 8th, an act that will serve for the Association to deliver the Cho Feriantes de Honor 2021 , and then the XVIII Villa de La Orotava 2021 Handicraft and Heritage Award.
The event will be held in an open-air space, of about 10,000 square meters, and the Association will implement an anti-contagion plan with capacity control, safety distance and a circuit will be established to visit all the spaces of the artisans. The purchase of tickets will be online on the platform www.tickety.es. Likewise, the use of a mask will be mandatory to access the venue and hydroalcoholic gel will be provided in each space.
In order to guarantee interpersonal distance at all times, the capacity of all areas will be determined and both interior routes and common areas will be marked by waiting marks.
“We are all a bit astronauts that we have to keep dreaming”
The paper and cardboard artisan Maru Pacheco, a native of La Orotava, created the dolls and the moon that are the image of the poster for this edition. He commented that his little astronaut emerged in full confinement “and just as the man looked at the moon at the time as something strange, then he dreamed and reached it, he can also live with the virus, continue advancing, dreaming and creating.” Maru made her little astronaut out of paper, a “noble and humble” material that can also have many lives and that together with cardboard are the focus of this year’s theme.
