Festivals and Events in Spain

⚠ Why there are no dates on this page

Several of Spain's largest festivals are moveable, because they follow Easter, and others fall on a rule rather than on a date. Our sources for this cluster carry no festival calendar at all, and a date remembered rather than checked is the single easiest thing to get wrong on a page like this.

So this guide tells you what each festival is, roughly when in the year it falls and what it does to a city, and then sends you to the municipal tourism office for the year you are traveling. That is the only reliable source, because several of these events are set locally.

Semana Santa

Holy Week is the largest religious event in the Spanish year and it moves with Easter. Seville and Malaga are the best known, and Valladolid, Zamora and Cuenca are serious in a quieter register. Brotherhoods carry sculptural floats through the streets over several days and nights, sometimes for many hours, and the city's ordinary life reorganizes around the routes.

If you want to attend, book accommodation months ahead and accept that central streets close and that crossing a procession is not possible. If you do not want to attend, this is a week to be somewhere else in Spain, because prices rise and availability vanishes across Andalusia.

The Feria de Abril

Seville's fair follows Semana Santa by a couple of weeks, so it moves too. It is a week of casetas, riding, dancing and dressing up, held on a dedicated fairground rather than in the historic center, and many of the casetas are private. The public ones are genuinely open, and going with someone local is the difference between watching and taking part.

Las Fallas

Valencia's fire festival runs in March and ends with the burning of the monumental fallas themselves. The daily event during it is the mascleta, a percussive daytime firework display in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento that you feel rather than watch, and the city fills with smoke and crowds. Bring ear protection for children, expect closed streets, and book early.

San Fermin

Pamplona's festival falls in July and is internationally known for the encierro, the running of the bulls. It is also a week-long city festival with processions, music and a great deal of drinking. If you are going for the bulls, understand that people are injured every year and that the run is not a tourist activity with safety rails. If you are going for the festival, go for the festival.

La Tomatina

Bunol's tomato fight falls on the last Wednesday in August, which is a rule rather than a date. Tickets are limited and sold in advance. Wear clothes and shoes you will throw away, and bring goggles.

Carnival

Carnival moves with the church calendar and arrives in late winter. Cadiz and Santa Cruz de Tenerife hold the two biggest, and they are different animals: Cadiz is satirical and verbal, built around chirigota groups, and Tenerife is a large-scale costume parade.

The rest of the year

Every town has a patron saint's festival, and the local one is often a better experience than the famous one because nothing is staged for visitors. Late summer and autumn bring harvest festivals in the wine regions, and the Christmas season runs past New Year to the Epiphany parades, which are the bigger event for Spanish children than Christmas Day itself.

Practical advice for any of them

The UK advisory's own festival guidance is short and correct: many large events and public processions are held in Spain each year, follow the advice of police and local authorities when attending, and take care of your valuables at a festival or a large concert. A dense crowd is where the distraction theft in our safety guide works best.

Book accommodation as soon as the dates are published, not when you decide to go. Expect restricted streets, altered transport and different opening hours, and check whether the museum you were counting on is closed for the holiday. Read our guide to the best time to visit for how these events sit in the year.

Sources

• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Spain safety and security: street theft and distraction teams, vehicle crime, the identification requirement, regional alcohol and swimwear rules, balconies, taxis, driving rules, wildfires and extreme heat. Accessed 16 September 2026.
• UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office: Spain travel advice: no advisory against travel to any part of the country, and no standing warning at the head of the advisory. Accessed 16 September 2026.