Spain’s fiestas are loud, communal and often fiery — monuments burned in the streets of Valencia, a week of white and red in Pamplona, an hour of flying tomatoes in a small town inland — and each belongs first to the town that keeps it.
Photo: Rafa Esteve, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Almost every Spanish town has its patron-saint festival, and some have become known around the world. Their dates are mostly fixed by the church calendar or by long local custom, and they are organised by the towns themselves — neighbourhood associations in Valencia, the city council in Pamplona and Buñol.
The entries here are among the country’s biggest crowd events. They are joyful, but dense, noisy and at times dangerous; each page says what to watch out for.
Falles
In March, Valencia fills its streets with giant satirical sculptures of cardboard and papier-mâché, shakes to the midday thunder of firecrackers, and then, on the night of 19 March, sets every one of the monuments on fire to welcome the spring.
March 15 – 19, 2027Calculated
Sanfermines
From noon on 6 July to midnight on 14 July, Pamplona dresses in white and red for its patron saint. A rocket opens the fiesta, giants dance through the old town every morning, bulls run through the streets at eight — and on the last night the whole city sings “Pobre de mí”.
July 6 – 14, 2027Calculated
On the last Wednesday of August, the small town of Buñol near Valencia hosts what is said to be the world’s biggest food fight — an hour in which thousands of ticket-holders pelt each other with tomatoes until the streets run red.
August 25, 2027Calculated