Corpus Christi in Villa de Mazo

The festival programme includes sporting events, exhibitions, competitions, theatre, children’s games, music, concerts, and more. But what stands out above all are the streets carpeted with flower petals, and the arches decorated with flowers, seeds and plants. ...

San Juan del Monte Festivities

It is a festivity that dates back to the Middle Ages. Its numerous acts end on Monday with a large procession to a place called La Laguna, where there is a shrine dedicated to the saint. About thirty-five million people participate in it. The highlight is the "Blusa Song Festival". Local “ochotes” (small choirs) take part in this festival. ...

Corpus Christi in Granada

Theatre, Zarzuela (Spanish light opera), concerts, exhibitions and shows fill the city. The “casetas” (marquees with food, drink, etc.) set up in the city’s fair ground come alive with activity and music, while the bullfighting fair gets underway at the bullring.

Las Carantoñas de Acehúche

The fiesta is held over two days on or around 20 January, the feast day of Saint Sebastian. It reenacts the moment when wild animals received the saint after his martyrdom, with several key figures in the ceremonies. ...

Festival of the Vaquilla

The event recreates the driving of the cattle (“vaquillas”) through the streets of the town, but in a uniquely distinctive way. The animals are not real, but artificial, and are created out of structures decorated with coloured silk ribbons, silk shawls and horns which are displayed with great gusto by all the participating groups as they ...

Fiesta of the Cuadrillas in Barranda.

A total of around 15 groups from all over Spain take part in the event. Throughout the morning the groups take up their positions around the squares and streets, where they sing and dance in the midst of the crows of onlookers. ...

Virgen de Gracia Pilgrimage

The processional events begin in the morning of the second Sunday of September with the image of the Virgen leaving for the hermitage, transported on a 'serrana' cart richly decorated with garlands and accompanied by thousands of pilgrims reciting the Aurora Rosary, culminating with the Ángelus before the Cross of the pilgrims; once the image ...

Bajada y Subida de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción: Procession of the Virgin of “Los Pegotes”

The first references to Nuestra Señora de la Concepción date from the 16th century, when a shrine with that name was built. In 1745 it was agreed that this ritual of taking the Virgin down and up the hill should become a tradition. ...

August Fair

In August, Xátiva, in the province of Valencia, celebrates the oldest fiestas in the Region of Valencia. This traditional event dates back to the 13th century, a privilege granted to the town by king Jaime I. ...

Sant Joan

The summer solstice is traditionally a night of magic, spells and portents. Tarragona celebrates this date with street dancing, popular feasts and firecrackers until the early hours of the morning, and of course the rite of the bonfires which are lit symbolically at various points throughout the city with the 'Canigó flame' (the fire which is ...

Festival of Moors and Christians in Murcia

Most of the events take place at the Medieval Camp, which is located in the San Esteban garden and serves as a meeting place where people can enjoy the festive atmosphere and sample local produce. The grand parade is held on Saturday, in which the groups that make up the Moorish and Christian sides parade through the city's neighbourhoods. ...

Pilgrimages to Orreaga-Roncesvalles

The most interesting pilgrimages include the one in the Arce valley, which has been in existence since the 16th century; and the one in the Aezkoa valley, which is the most visually striking and colourful. All over the area in May and June you'll come across pilgrims dressed in dark tunics, or barefoot penitents covered with black veils. ...

Natural Cider Festival, Nava

The Cider Festival, the most emblematic event of the year in the town of Nava in Asturias, takes place over the second weekend in July, and the preceding week. Celebrated for the first time in 1969, all sorts of cultural activities connected with the region’s favourite drink take place during the festival. ...

La Bañeza Carnival

The festivities start on Saturday evening with the grand Carnival dinner, the opening speech and the presentation of the Queen and Muse, which give way to the "Night of Sparks". People wear costumes ands gather in the Plaza Mayor to wait for the chispazo mayor (great spark). ...

Villarrobledo Carnival

The streets are full of joy and partying in Villarrobledo those days. The celebration starts on Thursday with the "arrival of the Juanes" - characters dressed up with masks with a crow's beak, and wolf's claws as shoes. They are in charge of starting the festival. ...

Human chess

The city of Xàbia-Jávea, Alicante, celebrates a very unique theatrical performance in summer: Human chess. This unique initiative involves boys and girls from local schools, aged between 6 and 14, who bring various characters to life. Based on a chess game, each year a different story is told with a plot, scenery and musical accompaniment. ...

Festival of San Martín, or the Humanitarians’ Festival

The festival is organised by the San Martín Humanitarian Association, and begins with the traditional sung mass of San Martín, accompanied by the sound of the typical Asturian bagpipes. ...

Santa Tecla Fiesta

The central axis of the celebrations is the traditional parade, made up of “big-head” carnival figures and characters who dance to music played on different traditional instruments. One of the most popular events is the Correfoc or fire-running, which is also the closing event of the fiesta. ...

Nuestra Señora de la Asunción Fiesta

The day of the Asunción is when the offering is given to the Virgin, performed by the major-domo in the Plaza Mayor, in the presence of the inhabitants of the 'mountain villages, in traditional costume normally worn at fiestas. ...

Traditional bull-running

Traditional bull-running takes place during the festivities in honour of San Antolín, and the streets are filled with fun and music. The bulls are taken from the countryside to the town entrance, and there the young men run in front of the bulls through the streets of Medina del Campo. The races are very exciting to watch. ...

Lobster Festival

On the last Sunday in June, this coastal town in the province of Pontevedra pays homage to the typical regional shellfish in a celebration where all the local people take part. At the port there is a popular menu including half a lobster, Rosal wine and a “roscón de yema” (typical local cake made with egg yolks). ...

Yecla Festival of the Immaculate Conception

Yecla, in Murcia, commemorates the Virgen del Castillo festivities at the start of December. The procession with the image of the patron saint, on the 8th, is the culminating moment of these festivities. ...

Nuestra Señora de la Barca Pilgrimage

This is one of Galicia’s most famous pilgrimages. It has been held since the 14th century in this fishing village on the Costa de la Muerte coast, and unites fishermen’s devotion to the Virgin Mary and other pre-Christian traditions such as the worship of stones. ...

Asturcón Horse Festival

The festivities begin in the morning with an open-air mass, and continue throughout the day with a dance competition, brass bands, bagpipe bands and a communal meal laid on by a local social club. Then there is a display of riding and dressage, which includes marking all Asturcón colts born that year.

Vaqueira Festival

The festivity is dedicated to the vaqueiros or cattle-herders (an Asturian group with deeply-rooted traditions and ancestral customs, devoted primarily to migratory cattle herding). ...

Botillo (local cured meat) Festival

This fiesta is held in the town of Bembibre (León province). It began its history in 1973 during a procession that is held every seven years known as the Saint’s Outing. Each February (may vary according to Easter date) since then, it has been traditional for all the restaurants in the region to offer “botillo” on their menus for a week. ...

Pig slaughter in Burgo de Osma

They recover an ancient tradition rooted in many of the region's rural areas: entire families would gather around a table to sacrifice a pig. This ancestral ritual – in which hams, black pudding, chorizos, sirloins and other cured meats and sausages were made by hand – was a social, bond-affirming day. ...

Faldeta Day in Fraga

These festivities are a tribute to the important role played by women in running the household economy. It highlights the traditional dress they wore in the past, comprising seven layered skirts, a bodice, jerkin and shawl, and normally worn with an attractive hairstyle. ...

Pilgrimage of Nuestra Señora de la Cabeza

The Shrine of the Virgin of la Cabeza is found on a hill in Sierra Morena. Thousands of pilgrims from across the region gather in Andújar dressed in Andalusian style and riding various types of steeds and visit the Shrine on the third day of the festivities. During the night, people sing and dance in front of the Shrine. ...

Reading of the Song of Roland

This historic event of 778 is commemorated orally every year in this recreation. It is an original way to enjoy listening to one of the most beautiful epic poems of the period, which ultimately made the name of Roncesvalles famous all over Europe.

Festivities of San Bernabé

This event lies somewhere between myth and reality. According to tradition, the inhabitants of Logroño managed to survive by drinking wine from the wine cellars and eating bread made with wheat from the granaries and the fish they caught in secret. ...

The Nájera chronicles

During it, a popular show takes place, with scenery included, during which the history, traditions and legends of the city are narrated.

Maios Fiesta

The fiesta is of Celtic origin and is related to the appearance of the first spring flowers. It is a deep-rooted celebration throughout Galicia and especially so in the cities of Pontevedra and Ourense. The "maios" are figures made out of flowers. ...

Patron festivities of Saint Vicente Ferrer

Some of the most common activities during these festivities include: Religious processions: these are one of the most important events, in which the figure of the saint is carried in a solemn procession around the city, accompanied by devotees wearing the traditional clothes and local music bands. ...

Dos de Mayo (Second of May) in Móstoles

Medieval market in Nájera

Throughout the days of the market, there are trades workshops (blacksmiths, potters, etc.), storytellers and several exhibitions featuring clothing and articles from medieval times. There are also children’s entertainments such as a farm with animals, falconry demonstrations, and theatre performances, groups of jugglers and medieval contests. ...