Fol (bag)

The fol is the bag of the Asturian gaita: the reservoir the gaitero holds under the arm, acting as the instrument’s air store.

It’s filled through the blowpipe and emptied by arm pressure onto the sounding pipes —punteru and roncón—. Its function is to decouple breathing from sound: the gaitero breathes whenever needed, but the gaita never goes silent, because the bag keeps delivering air. That’s the source of the instrument’s continuous, pause-free sound.

Traditionally made of cured goatskin, today it coexists with synthetic materials that are more stable against humidity.