BEACH FAIR WITH A DIFFERENCE IN J�VEA PORT

Every year, all along the coast, you’ll see rows of little stalls with hand-made jewelry and artistic T-shirts lined up along the front. The jewelry might be made by hand, but usually not by the people selling the stuff. It will come from Third World countries and is bought from specialised importers. Nice as a holiday souvenir, but you can buy the same stuff in any pound store. And now for something a little different.

This summer you will find a different sort of stalls set up in Jávea Puerto – stalls with jewelry, turned wood, scarves, carvings, leather, ceramics, even sculptures and paintings, all made by the people of the stall. Amata – the people who launched “Artesanía de Autor” – have been asked to organise a real craft market, and this looks like it is going to succeed. With the blessings of the local shopkeeper’s association, who want a little bit of quality for a change.

Jávea Puerto is not the Playa Arenal, Jávea Puerto is the bit of the old town near the port; there is a beach, there are restaurants, cafés, all sorts of interesting shops, a super modern concrete church of very original design and now a real craft fair. Just twenty or so stalls, but every one with people selling the stuff they make. You can buy something you admire, or, if you have a little patience and what you ask is not too complicated, order something and pick it up a few days later.

Some of the craftsmen and women are locals who are just looking for somewhere to sell what they make. Others are people from Madrid or Albacete who want to escape the heat and spend a month with their family at the seaside, and who sell their work as a way of making it possible to take a holiday. Whatever the reason, this is where you can find the sort of goods you associate with real craftsmanship.

The market opens every evening at 7 and the stalls pack up at about midnight on the beach front of Jávea port – from 1 July to 15 September. Not everybody is there every day: some take turns so as to have time to spend in their workshop – they can’t just go to the whole saler and buy more: if they sell they have to sit down and make more!! Ring 639 979 678 for further details (English spoken) or have a look at www.amata.es which has an English section with photographs of this and similar fairs.

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