Ceramics
festival
Festival of Ceramics
Ceramics play a significant role in the city’s most important events. The town’s festivities in honour of saints Justa and Rufina, patron saints of ceramists, are held in July.
The weekend before 19 July, the city of Manises puts on a display of the pottery-making process for all its visitors.
On those days, the craft workers leave their workshops and take their craft onto the street to show us their art. We are given the opportunity to observe all kinds of techniques and procedures for turning clay into a craftwork.
All those attending the festival can put into practice what they have seen and can even take their own work home or purchase a piece of craftwork.
Each edition seeks to improve on the previous one, as it aims to be a very participatory, representative festivity in our city with an artisanal nature to help us promote our local crafts.
Activities carried out during the Festa:
Demonstrations of craft work
You can observe and engage in ceramic techniques like: air-dry clay pottery, wicker, painting, flowers and press moulded figures, Raku, modelling with clay sheets and coils, decoration with dry cord, underglaze and overglaze, filigree, trencadís or pique assiette, clay reliefs, sculpture, etc., demonstrations and educational workshops, where different exhibitions of ceramic techniques are held, as well as demonstration workshops for children and adults.
And, of course, you can purchase ceramics from the different ceramists/artists who also exhibit their work.
“Allioli” Competition
All fans and lovers of cooking, no matter what their age, take part in the competition on Ave. Blasco Ibañez. The main objective is to promote the ceramic mortar and use it to make aioli.
The best aioli is awarded a prize by the jury.
Competition
“Festa i Cavalcada de la Ceràmica” Drawing
All the primary schoolchildren of Manises, from 1st class to 6th class take part in this competition. The schoolchildren must make a drawing based on the “Festa “ y/o “ Cavalcada de la Ceràmica” (the Ceramics Festival and/or Parade).
The aim of the competition is to help the children become familiar with their traditions. All the children’s drawings are placed on display in the MUMAF’s temporary exhibitions hall.
Competition “Torn” Vicente Díez
This competition is organised by local ceramic paste business, Vicente Díez S.L. and it aims at giving visibility to the pottery wheel and bringing ceramics closer to visitors.
The competition has 2 categories: Amateur and professional, to cater for a greater number of competitors.
The challenge involves making a cylinder as tall as possible and, at least, 15 cm in diameter in 10 minutes. To this end, all participants are given 6 kg of clay.
Artisans Exhibition
“Ceramics Festival” Artisans Exhibition in the Mumaf Exhibition Hall (in the El Arte building)
This exhibition, in its amateur as well professional formats, is one of the most popular activities with the public.
The reason is that it exhibits a large array of artisan pottery with a perfect combination of different authors, styles and techniques.
Festival Artisan Tribute
This activity aims at honouring and rewarding a lifetime dedicated to ceramics and the selfless work carried out by the craftspeople who help and take part in the Ceramics Festival.
This activity has been carried out since 2012.
Contest
Passport to Ceramics Festival
The purpose of the Passport to Ceramics is to boost visits to local cultural resources, the purchase of handcrafted pottery and participation in the other activities.
Visitors receive up to a total of 4 stamps in the pottery shops of the facilities they visit or following the activities carried out during the course of the festival. Participants are then entitled to participate in a draw of the prizes provided by local enterprise.
Photography Competition
“Festa i Cavalcada de la Ceràmica” Photography Competition in Instagram #ManisesEsCerámica
This competition seeks to promote the most important events associated with the Ceramics Festival, Hola Cerámica and the Open Doors Workshop seminar through social media and, particularly, Instagram.
Taking part is simple: participants just need to take a photo in the course of the activities and upload it to Instagram and share it on social media (such as Facebook and Twitter). The winners are those obtaining the most votes on social media for each event.
The prizes are provided by local businesses.
