Spain's biggest festivals are regional, not national — and their dates vary by year. Here's the short calendar that tells you when to book ahead, when to leave town, and which one is worth structuring a trip around.
| Festival | City | When | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carnaval | Cádiz, Tenerife | Late Feb / early Mar | Brazil-rivalling parade in Tenerife; satirical chirigotas in Cádiz |
| Las Fallas | Valencia | 15–19 March | Giant cardboard sculptures, then burned |
| Semana Santa | All Spain — Sevilla, Málaga most intense | March / April (movable) | Hooded processions; many cities pause |
| Feria de Abril | Sevilla | Two weeks after Easter | Casetas, flamenco, sherry, horseback riders |
| San Fermín | Pamplona | 6–14 July | The bull run; book a year in advance |
| La Tomatina | Buñol (Valencia) | Last Wed of August | Tomato fight; ticketed since 2013 |
Valencia's most distinctive festival. Falleros (neighborhood committees) spend a year building giant satirical cardboard-and-paper sculptures depicting politicians, celebrities, and pop-culture villains. On the night of 19 March (la cremà) every sculpture in the city is set on fire. Hundreds burn simultaneously across Valencia. The smoke smell takes a week to clear.
The five days are non-stop: daily 14:00 firecracker concerts (la mascletà), parades, regional food (buñuelos de calabaza), and night gunpowder shows (nit del foc). Hotel prices triple; book December for March. Worth the trip even just for the cremà night.
Holy Week. Spain takes the week before Easter seriously, with hooded processions (cofradías) carrying religious floats through cities. The hoods (capirotes) look unsettling to anyone unfamiliar with the symbolism — they're medieval penitential garb, not what they sometimes resemble in photos.
The opposite of Semana Santa's solemnity. A week of casetas (private and public party tents), flamenco dresses, sherry (manzanilla from Sanlúcar de Barrameda), horseback parades, and dancing until dawn. The Feria runs noon to 7am for six straight days. Most casetas are private (members and guests only); about 30 are public — line up early.
The dress code is real: women in flamenco dresses (trajes de gitana), men in formal suits or short jackets. Foreigners who show up in shorts are politely tolerated but obviously out of place.
The bull run (encierro) is the famous bit — six bulls released through the old town at 8:00am every morning, runners in front. The runs are 800 metres and last 2–3 minutes. People are gored every year; hospitalisations are routine. If you're going to participate, do it sober, in proper running shoes, and study the route on a non-encierro day first.
Beyond the bulls: Pamplona becomes a 24-hour city for nine days, with Basque-Navarrese music, txikiteo (the local equivalent of tapas), and an exhausting party rhythm. Book accommodation a year in advance; prices are 5–10x normal.
Spain's two big Carnaval cities are very different. Tenerife's is the second-largest in the world after Rio — sequinned parades, drag pageants, soca music. Cádiz's is older and more verbal — chirigotas, satirical singing groups in costume that compete on political and social satire. The Cádiz version is closer to a folk tradition; the Tenerife version is closer to the Brazilian template.