Statement by the ACURBA Association of Bailo on the “Jaca, Kingdom and Legend” events

At the Acurba association in Bailo, we have viewed with great concern the announcement of the forthcoming “Jaca, Kingdom and Legend” events, to be held from 29 September to 1 October alongside the traditional Medieval Market hosted by the city.

The previous weekend, from 15 to 17 September, we organised in Bailo the 7th edition of the Historical Re-enactment of the Holy Grail's Stay, a Festival of Tourist Interest of Aragón, with unprecedented participation and events that earned us congratulations from those who attended. We were therefore surprised to see Jaca Town Council scheduling, just 15 days later, an event with too many elements in common with the one we have been organising in Bailo.

Without questioning the professionalism or merits of those taking part in the events planned in Jaca, some of whom have also participated in ours, we believe that in this case Jaca is seriously harming small villages by drawing on the ideas of others with very little time between one event and the next. These ideas have taken enormous effort to bring to life and, in our case, have helped put an almost forgotten part of our district on the map.

The Holy Grail re-enactment events in Bailo are an idea we launched exactly ten years ago, in 2013, with a gap of four editions caused by the pandemic and its consequences. We are a small association from a village with fewer than 100 inhabitants in winter. None of this would have been possible without the help given to the association by the people of Bailo, in a genuine example of collective cooperation.

Moving to Jaca, just two weeks later, the idea that we have worked so hard and so selflessly to make a reality in Bailo would seriously harm our events and leave them completely overshadowed. We repeat that our events are designated a Festival of Tourist Interest of Aragón, and we have worked to promote them by presenting them at events such as FITUR, with a presentation in Plaza del Pilar, and through several appearances at events held in San Juan de la Peña and Huesca.

We do not seek conflict, but we do want to defend and make clear that we pioneered this kind of event in the Jacetania district, that we have travelled a far from easy road and that, as a result, we deserve a leading role that is seriously called into question by these new “Jaca, Kingdom and Legend” events.

We are willing to cooperate as much as necessary in activities connected with the history we tell and in which we can play a part, as we always have, just as other organisations cooperate with us. But we do not think it is appropriate to collaborate on activities that resemble a copy more than something distinct from our own. Still less when that collaboration is requested without informing us of the scale of the Jaca events.

At Acurba, we are calling for a new approach to the “Jaca, Kingdom and Legend” events, because Jaca has a history rich enough to organise re-enactments that offer something new, rather than competing on very unequal terms with something already established which, in our case, helps decentralise the district’s tourist offering.

We are convinced that these events in Jaca were organised with the best of intentions and without considering the negative consequences that copying an idea that has worked could have for us, especially within such a short space of time. For this reason, we are willing to build bridges and redirect the situation. At the same time, until everything is clarified, we cannot collaborate with an event whose model and timing are too similar to ours. We have contacted those responsible for the Jaca events to exchange views, but so far it has not been possible to sit down together to discuss them.

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