Estudiantinas (Callejoneadas)

Every evening, groups of estudiantinas — student musicians in seventeenth-century black velvet and white ruffs — gather on the steps of the Templo de San Diego next to the Jardín de la Unión and lead singing walks (callejoneadas) through the alleys of the old town. Walkers buy a ticket from the band, are given a small ceramic flask of wine to drink along the way, and follow the singers through narrow lanes to favoured spots where the songs and the stories continue.

The standard route lasts about ninety minutes and ends in a plaza with a final group performance. Genuinely fun; not a tourist trap so much as a local tradition that locals participate in.

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A story
The tradition was imported from Salamanca by Spanish students at the University of Guanajuato in the 1960s. The musicians wear seventeenth-century academic dress and play guitars, lutes, and tambourines.

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