He goes to Los Caneiros too loaded and gets half naked. If you go for the first time, you spend about 30 minutes on the spot, not knowing if you need to run or call the police.

This is a pilgrimage that has been celebrated for centuries in Betanzos, when the families of the city take a boat to Campo de los Caneiros where they eat and drink throughout the day. The problem, or the party, started decades ago when hundreds of pilgrims on foot with backpacks full of wine joined the betanceiros and people began to literally tear their clothes.

The decibels of a typical orchestra went up a bit and they stopped playing. Riansheira combine it with rock, techno and, of course, reggaeton. The grandparents stopped going and the field was filled with teenagers in their twenties and many in their forties who take advantage of the fact that the party is during the day and they come from all the towns and villages of the province of A Coruña.

My cousins ​​and I first tried to go when we were 15, but my little aunts, who are less than two decades older than us, told our parents that it was the closest thing to an orgy and that you came back bathed in wine and shirtless.

So we put our clothes in a backpack so we could change later and bought gas at a gas station where our family was not known. That first time we went on a boat boywho always went with her father, and we talked about how exaggerated our aunts were, until after 20 minutes we arrived at the Field.

my cousin Nora it took about 3 seconds to rip his shirt off, Andrea got a shot of wine in the eye as soon as he stepped on the ground and Maria and I stayed some more time in the boat. Maria, the oldest and most responsible, could only laugh, and I decided to tear my shirt off before lying down so that someone else would not do it.

Two hours later we were already veterans. Andrea had a squirt gun in her hand full of wine and looked like a sniper, Nora had already linked up with half of the Campo, and Maria had fallen into the river a couple of times. My cousin Bert I half-chested up on what looked like a platform, and everything happened so fast and it was so much fun that when we walked back, we forgot the spare clothes, the time and the excuse that we were going to the beach.

Since then, we have gone every year, and this day was enough to laugh until next year. Nora turned down all her suitors and ended up proposing with red hair and slippers full of water to who is now her husband. Maria learned to emerge from the river with a certain elegance, and Andrea learned to raise her hands so that no one would throw wine in her face.

Last summer we started leaving and returning by boat Robert, eat quietly and spend the day in the depths, where no one screams, breaks or throws and where there is always talk about how much fun we had in the thick of things when we were less modest and younger. Return at night, with all the clothes in place, see the fireworks from the Old Bridge.