BREAKING NEWS: Trie-sur-Baise's pig impersonations hit the world stage following the [Pourcailhade wave of death].
La Pourcailhade is a one-day festival held around the 15th of August in Trie sur Baïse in the Hautes-Pyrénées, one of the main pig-producing areas of France. The festival began in 1975, evolving from a game in which one was invited to guess the name of anybody, any animal or anything and a tradesman who had long learned to imitate the cries of the pig. The festival has been helf on the second Sunday of August every year for more than three decades.
It now is the world's foremost pig-based event and has been for many years the intention of the Tongs to visit. The festival has grown and grown in recent years and involves many exciting events and attractions. For example, there is a black pudding eating competition (world record: 1.3 metres of sausage in ten minutes), a piglet race, and a fancy-dress competition. The main event is a competition involving the imitations of the noises a pig makes during its life; when it's born, when it's castrated and having sex, and when it dies. After all that there is drinking, live music, and general megafun. The event is organised by La Confrérie du Cochon, or the Brotherhood of the Pig.
Overview of the Festival
The LaPourcailhade website reports:
This is the PIG CRY CHAMPIONSHIP of FRANCE. Of course, it simply doesn't do to go up on stage and shout like a pig without a precise goal in mind. A pig no more wants to cry out without purpose than does a man impersonating a pig! A number of topics are thus prescribed: The Pig When He Is Eating; the Sow Suckling Her Young; The Boar Suffering Castration; The Rutting Pigs; and the Pig With The Cut Throat.
Many hours of preparation are required in order to reach perfection, and one cannot even attempt to impersonate the true cry without also paying homage to our local multi-award winning champion Andre Sarran(although we do not have our favourites). He has won the title several years in succession (1993, 1998, 1999). So perfect is his impersonation, one begins to believe in reincarnation. The very first French champion of pig impersonation was the very respected Mr Yves Lartigue, and since that date winners have come from Tarnais, the Basques, Isérois and Garonnais to claim the title.
Do you know which animal is closest to man? The pig!
And do you know the men closest to this animal? They are:
- 1995 : René VEYET et ses 3 Comparses - SALAGNON (Isère)
- 1996 : Joseph CESHIN - MEZIN (Lot et Garonne)
- 1997 : Les Chevaliers du Groin - CARCASSONNE (Aude)
- 1998 : André SARRAN - CASTELNAU MAGNOAC (Htes Pyrénées)
- 1999 : André SARRAN - CASTELNAU MAGNOAC (Htes Pyrénées)
- 2000 : DAUVIN / DUVILLE - SAINT MARTIN DE SESCAS (Gironde)
- 2001 : DAUVIN / DUVILLE - SAINT MARTIN DE SESCAS (Gironde )
- 2002 : DAUVIN / DUVILLE - SAINT MARTIN DE SESCAS (Gironde )
- 2003 : L'équipe de Stéphane SEJOURNE - POITIERS
- 2004 : L'équipe de Stéphane SEJOURNE - POITIERS
- 2005 : Yohann et Olivier ROUSSEL de Pouyloubrin (32)
- 2006 : Stéphane SEJOURNE - de Poitiers (86)
- 2007 : M et Mme BOIS - de Landser (68)
Other activities have recently included the TRI-PORC CHAMPIONSHIPS...
Peggy, Corkscrew, the Truffle, Dugras, Ventrèche, Groing, Double Fat, Foot of Pig, Traouque Sègue and Babe were all in their little boxes behind the starting line. Behind the door, they heard the crowd roaring the glory of their names.
The pressure was immenses. And then the doors opened! They must run!
Under the thunderous applause of an appreciative public, our ten brave marathonians hurled themselves down the track in pursuit of just one objective: Vivtory. Some - well trained - will cross the line with their corkscrew tails in plume, proud and victoriious. Others - more timid - will turn halfway and return to their boxes, to the great despair of those that entered them into the race. That's the game!
Recent article in the Huddersfield Examiner
The French way to enjoy your holiday, 18 August 2004, Huddersfield Examiner.
Even in a country that prides itself on being able to find any excuse for celebration, the National Pig Squealing Championships, is a unique masterpiece of overindulgence and has visitors flocking to Trie-sur-Baise in Hautes-Pyrenees. Fifty years ago, the town was France's biggest pig market and, despite the fact that trade has diminished, to the holidaying French family, its annual one-day pig event, "La Pouncailhade", is well worth the pilgrimage.
Held every year on the second Sunday of August, the place develops swine fever. Cartoon characters of pigs reflecting the owner's profession grace each shop window in the town and, in the old market, hundreds of visitors, all intent on making a pig of themselves, gorge on roast pork. Beret-wearing waiters wiggle between the tables doling out wine as if it were pigswill, from bottles opened with pigtail shaped corkscrews. Regular visitors know that it pays not to have their snouts in the trough for too long, as there is more swining and dining later in the evening. Before that, however, is the all-important event of the day when contestants line up on stage for the pig squealing championships. It is not enough, however, to merely imitate an approximation of pig noises. There are different categories where the contestants, whose age's range from eight to 80, are judged on their ability to mimic the sounds a pig makes on its way from farrowing to the time it prepares for the "Great Pig Sty in the Sky".
For those spectators who cannot face too long between meals, there is the opportunity to indulge in the black pudding championships. Lancashire, eat your heart out! The county's renowned dish pales into insignificance when compared to the "boudin noir" of this region of France. Judging is simple, based merely on how many metres of black pudding can be consumed in the shortest space of time. The current record stands at one metre forty centimetres eaten in just four minutes. (The Blackpool Tourist Board are missing a trick - surely such an event would be a crowd pleaser if held on the Golden Mile?) Yes, the French as a nation, have their priorities sorted. Too bad if their holiday period coincides with foreigners desperate to spend their euros and disappointed to find a promising café closed. August is time for the family and that time is to be enjoyed. And after a day spent at the pig squealing championships, what does the average French family do? Well, it is obvious: they go "Oui, oui, oui," all the way home.
External links
- http://www.trekearth.com/gallery/Europe/France/photo81580.htm - Dans la cochon, tout est bon!
- http://www.pourcailhade.com/ - official, somewhat lacking, web page
I just found this letter to the local tourist office in my old file directory. Why did I never get a response? I'm sure it's perfect French:
- Cher monsiuer / madame,
- J'entends qu'il y a un festival annuel dans le canton de Trie-Sur-Baise où les gens imitent des porcs (la traduction est difficile: individu déguisement comme porc. Je fais des excuses pour le français faible!).
- Pourriez vous m'envoyer des détails de ce festival, s'il vous plaît. Par exemple, quand le festival est-il à tenir? Qui peut participer au festival? Où pouvons-nous trouver le logement? Que pouvons-nous faire dans Trie-Sur-Baise?
- Merci de votre aide.
I reckon we should send it again.. They have a fax machine!
- Maison du Pays de Trie - 31, Place de la Mairie, 65220 TRIE-SUR-BAISE
- tél. 05.62.35.50.88
- télécopie : 05.62.35.62.88
- Email : pays-de-trie@wanadoo.fr
- Site internet : www.triesurbaise.com
- Ouvert du Lundi eu vendredi de 9h à 12h30 et de 14h à 17h30 (hors saison).
The competition
A brief look on the net turns up what we'd be up against were we to enter.
(also see /OfficialPictures)
Seems from [this] that there were only seven entrants last year. Also interesting that in [the previous year] there was a 'classic' and 'modern' category, the latter featuring the 'twenty-one crew'.
I think were we to take part, there's a very good chance we'd do well.