Mowing and threshing festival in Avià

Every second Sunday in July, a group of harvesters from Avià (the Berguedà ) celebrate a festival whose objective is to pay homage to the figure of the peasant, recalling the traditional task of working in the fields.

The Fiesta del Mowing and Threshing d'Avià is held on the esplanade near Santa Maria d'Avià, a 12th-century Romanesque church located 1 km from the town centre. Organized by the Colla de Segadors, in collaboration with the Ateneo and the Avià City Council, the festival is celebrated with a program of events featuring practical demonstrations of mowing and threshing, just as they were done in the past, with animals and the tools used to perform tasks in the field.

The party was born in 1989 at the initiative of a neo-rural agricultural expert. At the beginning, the festival lasted three days (the first was the mowing, the second the sifting, and the third the threshing), but this very long structure made attendance at many of the acts tarnish, so it currently has a shorter duration.

The festival is celebrated during the natural period for mowing and beating, which runs from San Juan to the end of July. Somehow, this celebration has replaced in a renewed way the old peasant festivals that took place spontaneously in private homes once the beating process was finished and that constituted a true expression of joy for having finished the harvest.

Do not miss it!