The people of Lestedo, located about 15 kilometres from Santiago de Compostela, are reluctant to end the Carnival, and on Piñata Sunday (the one after Shrove Tuesday) they celebrate the Festa da Filloa. The goal they have had since 1984 is to popularise one of the most traditional after-meal desserts in Galicia, particularly popular in homes and restaurants during Carnival. But the event is not only gastronomic, since at the same time a meeting of xenerais takes place, the most typical Carnival characters in this area who revitalise another ancient tradition of the region of A Ulla.

From midday onwards, the festival area is filled with music and people eager to eat filloas, a traditional Galician dessert similar to pancakes. Made from flour, water, eggs and salt, for some years now it has been cooked in an original machine invented by a local pastry chef, producing an average of 1,500 filloas every hour, never losing their texture or flavour.

1993The proclamation and the food is followed in the afternoon by the meeting of the xenerais, who in their colourful costumes, mounted on horseback, engage in a dialectic confrontation with the recitation of coplas (poems) full of social, political and cultural satire on current events.

Highlight:

The meeting of the Xenerais