New Year celebrations came and went in Bérchules, but during August, as has become the much-popular custom there.

On the said Saturday the festive activities accrued a profit of 2,500 euros, thanks to the sale of marketing products; i.e., baseball caps. These funds will be handed over to the charity Ciudad de los Niños, which is based in one of the poorer quarters of Granada, namely La Chana.

Around 12,000 people turned up to scoff back the traditional grapes at the stroke of midnight, which has been going on since 1994, when a power cut just before midnight on the 31st of December prevented the usual celebrations. “What the hell,” they thought, “Let’s do it in August instead,” little suspecting that such a novel arrangement would attracted such a large following and becoming one of the top summer events in the Alpujarra.