FESTVM ALONIS (Latin for "the feast of Allon") is a historical re-enactment festival dedicated to the Roman city of Allon, under today's Vila Joiosa, and its territorium, represented by l'Alfàs del Pi. It is organised by both town councils, through Vilamuseu and the Villa Romana de l'Albir Open Air Museum, as well as by the Hispania Romana Cultural Association. From this year, the Alicante university off campus sites of both cities have also joined the programme, which will be complement with lectures and classical theatre performances, one of the main novelties of this 10th edition. The other major novelty is the duration of the event, which will last five months, with a variety of events from 20 April to 28 September.
The Festival began in 2012. The last edition, the ninth, was held online in 2020 in an innovative format, via Instagram live, because of the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2023, the festival returns to the on-site format. If in previous years the main themes were the army, gladiators, weddings, birth rites or the funerary world, this time it is gastronomy.
Manuel León, archaeologist and CEO of Arqueogastronomía, will open the festival and the series of conferences on fish sauces in ancient Rome, in La Vila Joiosa; while Jaime Molina, professor at the University of Alicante, will speak on 18th May on wine in the Ancient Mediterranean in L'Alfàs del Pi. Likewise, the lectures by the Municipal Archaeology Service of La Vila Joiosa on 14th September on the Roman city of Allon, and by Carolina Frías, cultural technician at l'Alfàs del Pi Town Hall, on digital narratives in the Roman Villa of l'Albir, will serve to provide a state of the question on two main sites of Roman archaeology in the region.
On 28 April the Aula de teatro de la Universidad Permanente de la Universidad de Alicante (UPUA) will perform "Las Troyanas" in l'Alfàs del Pí, while the company Aula de Teatro de la Universidad de Alicante will stage "Las Amazonas" in La Vila Joiosa on 16 September.
The historical re-enactment event, organised by the Hispania Romana Cultural Association, will take place on 10 and 11 June in La Malladeta de la Vila Joiosa, next to the Roman sanctuary, and in the Roman villa of l'Albir in L'Alfàs del Pi respectively. Reenactors from all over Spain will travel to both cities to bring to life, with great fidelity, the Roman family, the army, the gladiators, a caupona (Roman restaurant, with garum and wine tasting), the religious rites to the family gods (Lares) or the Lemurias, with which the ghosts of the dead were exorcised to prevent them from haunting the houses. The programme is completed with children's workshops and special guided tours on different dates.
All the information and the detailed programme can be found at: https://vilamuseu.es/festumalonis-en