Finally, the weekend that we had all been looking for arrived: Castellers de Sydney have spent a full weekend together, having lots of fun in Port Stephens. It was the first time that we did summer camp all together… and it was a full success!

We had booked the whole youth hostel for ourselves, which gave us the freedom to do whatever we wanted without bothering anyone. We all arrived on Friday night and, while eating pizza, the organisers explained the timetable for the weekend, as well as the two games that would last all days (the peck and the kiss killer). Apparently, it was going to be a pretty intense weekend, but we were all very enthusiastic about it… so all good. After we finished eating, we had to find the little elf, who was hiding in the bush and then he taught us a lot of team bonding games, which all ended in huge laughs (just check the pictures).

We woke up with the nice smell of bacon and eggs: the breakfast team did an excellent job and we all ate as much as we wanted to get lots of energy for the first activity of the day. The Junta had prepared a “crazy rehearsal”, just for fun, including things that we wouldn’t usually do, like making a “folre”, “falcons”, and a pom de dalt and enxaneta races. Because it was getting really hot (yes, the weather forecast was wrong… and we were so happy that it happened AGAIN), we went to the swimming pool to cool ourselves off… and we continued doing human towers in the water. Of course.

Then, another big moment arrived: an amazing fideuà (thanks Txoko for the paella!) was ready to be eaten. It was delicious (and so was the allioli), hats off to the cooks! After a short break (and with the cemetery getting more and more gravestones with the names of the people being kissed-killed), we started the evening activity, which consisted of a gymkhana de tota la vida (apple-water-suggus-flour, races, passing the apple to other people, etc). But in this case, the prizes were handmade mini castellers (super cute, thanks Adriana!), which we used to build the most original towers at the end of the gymkhana.

In the evening, just before dinner, we had an assembly organised by the Junta, to show us some videos of human towers (some with nice tips, others were just hilarious), as well as to present possible padrins for our colla. After a very yummy dinner (chicken with tomato and onions, and French fries and salad… and ice-cream), we started the night game: a Minute to Win it team competition. But the night was going to be much longer for some of the members of the colla… and memorable. Right, cap de colla?

On Sunday we woke up again with a feast for breakfast… and the canalla with some nice drawings on their face and arms. What happened while they were sleeping? Nobody knows… After packing up, we  left the hostel to do the Tomaree Head Summit walk, which had amazing views of Port Stephens and its coastline. Definitely worth the effort!

We then moved to another beach, where we relaxed and we had a nice goodbye BBQ all together. We finished the summer camp by dancing the txutxuà song and, of course, the tricky-tracka song (which probably everyone agrees that it is now our official anthem). While some people still stayed around and visited the famous sand dunes, others decided to head back to Sydney, for a well-deserved rest.

Thank you very much to the organisers of the summer camp (Jasmina, Pau, Adriana, Ignasi and Montgarri) and to all the other 29 castellers who made such a fantastic weekend possible. Thanks colla, you are the best!

PS1: The video of Juanjo’s shrimp would be an excellent contribution to the post (and to the webpage), but probably I wouldn’t be allowed to climb anymore, so we’ll just say that what happened in Port Stephens, stays in Port Stephens. You’ll have to join us next time if you want to understand exactly what was going on.

PS2: And it goes tricky! … 😉

With two human towers teams in the same country, Australia has become one of the most important countries besides Catalonia in terms of human towers.  Australia has Koalas of Melbourne and a team in Sydney (Castellers of Sydney or Sydney Human Towers).

As a little bit of a background, Koalas of Melbourne was founded in 2014, and 2 years later, in June 2016 Sydney Human Towers was created. So Sydney Human Towers have always been very inspired by the Melbourne team, since they were brave enough to initiate and promote the first Australian human towers group.

Having said that, it was time to meet each other, so a few members of Sydney Human Towers decided to get on a plane and fly the almost 1000 kilometers  that separate the two biggest cities of Australia and to have their very first rehearsal together on November 2017.

The day started really early for us, having a flight at 6am to make the most of our weekend out in Melbourne (although it’s also true that we couldn’t wait to finally meet them!).

Once we arrived, we had some breakfast at the airport and went to the park where people from Melbourne were already gathering.
After playing an icebreaker game to get to know everybody’s name we started the rehearsal.
We were surprised about the amount of people that showed up (we were more than 30!), and besides so many more people stopped to take pictures and meet the team!
We did the usual warmup and climbed on top of each other next to a light pole. It was so good to see how some of the participants reached up there until the third level for their very first occasion, so we were pushing our limits from the very beginning (congrats guys!!).

After that it was time to build some actual towers! Firstly we did the upper part (also known as “pom de dalt”), practicing the crown at the beginning and then we practiced how to do two levels on the ground. Once both tests were successfully completed, we decided to accept the challenge of placing a crown on top of those two levels.
We organised everybody at the base and we were ready to go! Everything was very smooth and we completed a 4of5 without “aixecador”, which is quite difficult and a very big step towards 6 levels!

But that was not enough for us! We wanted to go even higher, so we assembled the base again, this time for the first 3-3-3 tower, which is a 3of6 without the crown. When the base was strong and the guys at the bottom confident, the second level started to climb! Everybody was enthusiastic and focused, so it felt really good.
After that, the third level initiated their way up without hesitation and, before we realised, they were already at the top, having built a really complex tower but surprisingly stable.

The performance ended up with two pillars of 3, where everybody was involved since we had to build two bases.

After a big and successful rehearsal where plenty of new members joined, Koales had a BBQ ready for us, so we can say that our hosts really took care of us and made us feel truly welcome.
The BBQ and beers went on for hours and later on it was time to go back to our hostel and get ready for dinner.

Of course the Melbourne team didn’t abandon us a single minute, so right after dinner they were waiting in a pub where we had a few beers before going to sleep (it had really been a long day!).

On the next day we put on our tourists hats and went for a tour in Melbourne, accompanied by Koales of Melbourne. We spent the whole day visiting this and that and went early to bed since next morning we had another flight at 6am to arrive in time for work.

We left Melbourne very happy with our human towers experience and really wanting to be back again. Thank you very much Koalas of Melbourne, you were amazing hosts!

And here we are again! La Castanyada is another big day for Castellers de Sydney and it is always a pleasure to take part of the annual event organized by the Casal Català of NSW. We were very enthusiastic about this performance and we had been training intensively to repeat the 4d6 of the Diada, as well as to attempt for the first time the 4of6 with the pillar. The rehearsals looked very promising, so we were very positive on our way to Centennial park.

Unfortunately, the little turnout of people helping at the pinya, resulted in a quick change of plans and it happened to be very positive to try new people at different positions. We still started with a 3d6, which started to close at the terços level too early, resulting in a successfully dismantled tower. We decided to regain confidence with a 4d5 with a needle, which turned out to be the quickest one so far. Our canalla is becoming really good: a big clap to Elsa, Ainhoa and Gemma! Then it was time to show all the potential and hard work of our dear newbies, and we decided to continue the performance with a 3d5, where 5 of the people in the tronc performed for their first time. If the 4d5p was fast, this one was even faster! Very soon the worried look on the newbies’ faces before climbing became a huge smile… and for a good reason! They should be very proud of themselves because they did an excellent job! But let’s not forget our pinya, those castellers who are always there and today, more than ever, made this nice performance possible. Finally, we completed the performance with 3 pillars (two p3 and one p4)… and, of course, we baptised the newbies. Because it’s a tradition… and because it was super hot!

Big congratulations to the colla for such a nice day, as well as a huge thanks to everybody who came and helped us. And obviously to Casal Català for letting us perform in their event!

Castells: 3d6(id), 4d5a, 3d5, 3d6(id), 2p3+1p4

FIRST 6 LEVELS HUMAN TOWER IN AUSTRALIA.­.., EVER!!!!!

WE MADE IT!!!

Did you realise it??­??? We made it!!!!

I can say it again.­.., we made it!!!!!!!

It can be said loude­r, but not clearer, we made it, we made it, WE MADE IT!!!

But what’s on?? FIRST 6 LEVELS HUMAN TOW­ER THAT AUSTRALIA HAS EVER SEEN!!!

Sometimes it’s like we forget what we’re here for, it might seem that we’re just having fun, getting together, enjoying the fact of being a wonderful group of people doing things and using rehearsals just a way to social­ise. But NO!!

We’ve got a mission, we aim at bringing to Australia the fla­vour of the “castell­s”, the challenge of getting bigger and higher at each perfo­rmance we do, making possible that people who weren’t aware they could like them so much can also pa­rticipate and be part of it. And for the ones that prefer to stay back, but can’t resist the delight of seeing those wob­bling structures goi­ng higher and higher­…, here we are for them to enjoy!!!

We’re here to make it possible, touching the sky down under!! That’s us!!

And on Sunday 10th September we have def­initely MADE HISTORY­!!

Hosted again by our friends the Casal Ca­tala of NSW, shelter­ed by our beloved lo­yal audience, already used to being help­ing out as part of the crowd, we had pla­nned our most outsta­nding achievement to date: a 4of6, first 6 levels tower ever done in Australia (had I already said that???).

The weather was just perfect, the surrou­ndings were breathta­king, the Opera House was impressive beh­ind our parcel at Bo­tanic Gardens… imp­ressive but alone in the skyline! The ci­rcumstances were unb­eatable and really put us on the mood to keep up the expecta­tions!

On top of that nice day, we just came fr­om having performed at Eurofest the prev­ious day, in our fir­st event hosted by a non-related third party, and had our sp­irits really really high, because everyt­hing went like a bre­eze at the festival. Structures were cle­an, sturdy, stable and kids were fastest than ever (common, kids, why do you make us suffer that much during the rehears­als and then let us so amazed when you finally decide to foc­us??). Saturday was then an extraordinary day which felt like a self-esteem boos­ter, we knew we could do whatever we tri­ed on Sunday!!

Having said that, the time to shine had arrived, and it was decided that 4of6 wo­uld be the very first tower to attempt. Let’s be brave!! No warm up required, le­t’s do it like this!! As it wouldn’t req­uire of any training, like (as our capta­in joked) you can ju­st pop up with a gro­up of friends and do this in a park on a Sunday morning!!

Crowd was prepared, having all our non-c­limbing members plus some volunteers from the public (guys, let’s add a serious note here, please, lower your heads next time, we know it’s just amazing to see how the tower is get­ting built, but this is a safety matter. You can instead feel it go higher, you can still notice the movements, hear the voices of the ones in there giving inst­ructions, there’s mu­ch to live in such a position, don’t wor­ry that you won’t be missing it!!).

Besides we had two grallers playing for us, you can’t imagine how much we enjoyed having them, compl­ementing the moment, we can’t be more th­ankful to them!! Tha­nk you very much gra­llers, you were the icing of the cake, thanks to you everyth­ing was really perfe­ct!!

Everything was ready and then…, when everybody was just ex­pecting something to happen…, here it comes!!

“SECONDS…, UP!!!!”

The highest castell ever in Australia is on its way!!! Nothi­ng can stop it now!! Oh my god, such a goosebumps feeling!!

Commands can still be heard among the gr­alles, the breathing of the castellers in the base, the inst­ructions that they give to each other, adjusting positions, giving green light to keep going up…

And then it’s when you can start hearing instructions to the kids, the “canalla”, there they go!! Wh­ere are they? Where are they? Is the aco­txadora making it? We had prepared her way with extra bandan­as, the anxaneta for sure is impatiently waiting for her to be a bit higher befo­re moving, as she al­ways does, like she was over everything and she didn’t mind if the tower is 4 le­vels, 6 or what. For sure she was also cheering her little sister to avoid her doubts in the very la­st moment…

Time passes so slowl­y… every second co­unts, every slight movement makes harder to hold the weight and balance, but bri­ngs the hope that the anxaneta is a step closer to crown the tower, breathings are held… As many people in the tower can’t see what’s happ­ening, the only way to know if listening to…, everything!! Guessing when a foot slips and when a kid tries again, hear­ing them being cheer­ed by the technical team supervising from the ground… Time stops for a moment.­.. and then…, the massive clap, the ce­lebration of the gra­lles and the public happily screaming te­ll everything we need to know, WE MADE IT!!!!

That’s so amazing!!! But we can’t celebr­ate yet!! The tower still has to be unlo­aded, don’t move, ho­ld, hold, hold!!

And when one of the “seconds” warns all of us with an impera­tive shout “don’t ce­lebrate yet, wait for everybody to be do­wn!” then you realise it again, WE MADE IT, and you want to laugh, to jump, to finish it all to hug everybody around, but can’t yet, please, can’t they go down faster???

WE MADE HISTORY AT THAT VERY MOMENT

Now we are a colla of 6, which is awesome to be an internati­onal colla (human to­wers group) outside Catalonia. We’re sti­ll trying to digest it…

And yes, after that massive achievement, we did a tower of 5, tried a 3of5, and did a nice compositi­on of pillars of 3-4­-3 with flags and wi­th the Opera House behind, which on their own would also be a really good perfor­mance too, but after having just complet­ed the 4of6 that alm­ost felt like the li­ttle siblings.

A bit later, after the big event, it came the big acknowledg­ement, not only by ourselves, but also by the rest of the ca­stellers worldwide. And here we’ve got another extraordinary help, we count now on a great photograp­her who loves castles almost as much as taking the most impr­essive pictures you could ever imagine and who has tirelessly been warming up our followers with his images for the last weeks!! We literally couldn’t wait for his files to be uplo­aded to our facebook and shared with new­spapers which were following our success­!! A BIG THANK YOU to him!!!

Now we’re already pr­eparing our next eve­nt, we’ve got more towers of 6 to be int­roduced to Australia soon, we have to get familiar with our new asset, the 4of6, the Australia-of-6, as it has been named by a Catalan newsp­aper…, much work ahead!!

But now, let’s celebrate!! WE MADE IT!!!

And… it was time to celebrate again! CHRISTMAS IN JULY party was kind of mandatory because:

1. We are in Oz, all aussies do it every year and good traditions which involve food and drinks are always something to copy without hesitation ?
2. Christmas in summer time doesn’t really feel like “Nadal” and we all miss that. Like a lot.
3. It’s a great idea to have some yummy meals with your “aussie family” from time to time
4. We had a LOT to celebrate anyway (remember what an amazing 4 of 6 we (almost) did on our anniversary?)
5. And, let’s face it, any reason is a good reason to party!??

So we did it in the best possible way: with a proper “dinar de Nadal”, followed by the usual fun party at the Gure Txoko on the 15^th July. And when we say “proper Christmas lunch” we mean exactly that:

• Sopa de galets amb pilotetes / “Galets” (shell pasta) soup with small meatballs
• Canelons de l’àvia de Sant Esteve / Sant Esteve grandma’s cannelloni
• Sorbet de llimona al cava / Lemon and champagne sorbet
• Torró Suchard casolà / Homemade chocolate torró

The cooks started preparing this delicious menu the night before. They said that they worked very hard, but actually they spent all night playing cards (we have clear evidences of that).  However, they must have worked a bit as well, because in the end they made “sopa de galets” for 60 people, 150 canelons and 7l of sorbet. Which obviously means that in the end we all took lunch boxes at home to eat during the week. But no complaints here, the food was absolutely amazing!

Unfortunately, on Saturday we had to say goodbye to 2 of our members: Roser and Maria were going back home after spending a really great time with us. So this was also a farewell (or hopefully a see you soon) party… we’ll miss you a lot, girls! Luckily there were also nice things happening, Nóra was turning 23 (wait, was it 28?) and we all enjoyed a delicious lemon cheesecake to celebrate her BD (hats off to Jasmina, official baker of CdS from now on!).

And then… we changed from Michael Bublé to party music and we discovered the best DJ ever: Gemma is not only a great enxaneta (and future dosos…), she is really good at choosing the right songs to keep the party going! And that’s exactly what happened. Till late. Very late. But again, this cannot be published here… we need to keep pretending that we are decent people, you know. Better join us next time!

Eskerrik asko Gure Txoko for letting us have such a nice time. Bon Nadal a tothom! Merry Christmas to everyone from Down Under!

Who would have said in June 2016, when only 8 people attended the first rehearsal, that we would be celebrating one year with more than 40 members? This year has been amazing and it’s time to celebrate our first anniversary properly!

This is why Castellers de Sydney would like to invite everybody to join us for a full day of activities, free food, drinks, games and, of course, many castells! We have been rehearsing a lot since La Pegatina concert and we are aiming to complete our best human tower performance so far. Just come from 12pm at Prince Alfred Park ready to make history by helping us to achieve the BIGGEST human tower performance that this country has ever seen!!

Schedule:

12:00 – 12:45 Games and prizes for kids (yep, we are preparing an awesome “gimcana castellera” for the kids!)
12:45 – 13:45 Human Towers Performance
13:45 – 15:30 FREE lunch and drinks
15:30 – 15:45 Raffle
15:45 – late Drinks + lo que surja

We are looking forward to see you all there!

What an incredible day today! The forecast was saying that there would be heavy rain but, as usual, it was wrong. If you live in Sydney for a while, you know that you can’t never trust the forecast. Instead a nice blue sky appeared from 11 am and the fronton of the Gure Txoko was dry (and properly decorated) by the time that we started the performance (~2pm).

When the cap de colla was calling people in their positions at the pinya (“cantant la pinya”), there was an unusual silence. All the members of the colla (and the nice usual volunteers… thanks again!) knew that we needed a lot of concentration to attempt the torre de 5. As soon as the upper floors started to climb, we could see that the tower was looking better than in the rehearsal, with almost no lateral movements. But what really made a difference this time was our small canalla, who didn’t hesitate and climbed smoothly and fast. It was their first time performing in public and they did a great job! Immediately after the tower, we wanted to repeat the 4 de 5 amb agulla. There were significant changes in the structure, to train new castellers in the tronc. However, the 4 started to lose its squared shape as soon as the dosos were on their position, which made it go down when the enxaneta was going to start the last three steps. Without discouraging us, we tried it again, exchanging the positions of some of the castellers in the tronc. Unfortunately, this time it didn’t work either and the enxaneta was told to go down when she had her foot already on the faixa of the dos. A bit sad because we couldn’t crown the tower, we decided to finish the performance with 2 pilars de 3 at the same time. The good news is that we have learned where we are facing the major issues and we’ll work hard to make sure that they are fixed for our first birthday!

In any case, the torre de 5 was something to be very proud of and the party was still on. Little by little more and more people started coming and the fronton became very crowded. There was not much room left by the time that La Pegatina came to the Txoko as a surprise for most of the attendants (thanks again, La Pegatina!!). They were received with an aurresku danced by people learning dantza (Tuesdays, 6pm at the Gure Txoko) and they joined us for some beers. Afterwards we all went together to their concert… but the FUN and the craziness of that part of the day can’t be explained here. You’ll have to join us next time if you want to understand how great it was.

We don’t want to finish without saying that it has been a great pleasure to collaborate with the Gure Txoko and the Casal Català… and, again, thanks to La Pegatina for coming to our party and making us have such a good time in your concert!

Castells: 2d5, 4d5a (id), 4d5a (id), 2 pd3 simultanis

Information about this event will be posted soon.

We have great news: La Pegatina is coming to Sydney next Saturday!

We have even better news: together with the Gure Txoko and the Casal Català, we are organizing the best pre-concert warm-up party that Sydney will see in the next 5 years. Trust us, it’s gonna be huge and you really don’t want to miss it. Since any excuse is good to do human towers, we are going to be performing there at the Gure Txoko (344 Liverpool St) at 12:0o pm. No need to say that everyone is more than welcome to join us!

However, we also need your help this coming Thursday, because we are aiming to build a new tower for this special occasion. Yep, we should practice a bit more and we need your arms at the pinya. So please, join us (and bring friends!) from 6 to 8:30 pm at Hyde Park… and enjoy with us a casual dinner after the rehearsal.

See you all there!