RECORD CROWDS

PILGRIMAGE: The biggest in the city’s entire history.

Anna Ellis

MORE than a whopping 330,000 people took place in the Santa Fez pil‐grimage in Alicante on Thursday, April 20.

The mayor, Luis Bar ‐cala, confirmed: “This is the most massive Santa Faz in our entire history, there are between 330,000 and 350,000 peo‐ple which is the most nu ‐merous so far.”

A ringing of bells an ‐ nounced the beginning of the pilgrimage from the Black Gate of the Co ‐Cathedral of San Nicolas to the Monastery of San ‐ta Faz.

The mayor added: “The people of Alicante have responded to the tradi ‐tion of going to the sec ‐ond most participatory and popular pilgrimage in Spain after El Rocio. It commemorates the mira ‐cle of the tear that oc ‐ curred on March 17, 1489.

The event took place without any major inci ‐dents.

There was the need for

28 medical assistances for injuries including fainting and two transfers to the hospital for one patient with heart problems and another with a fracture.