COUNTRY OF FESTIVALS
Spain is known as the country of festivals and is one of the most frequented places by festival tourism in all over the world. It is possible to experience the excitement of the festival in Spain throughout the year. Besides many festivals of the country, there are many local and regional festivals.
It is a unique opportunity for festival lovers, especially for New Year's Eve celebrations and Semana Santa, running with bulls on the streets, tomatoe fightings on the streets of Valencia, fun on the streets of Huesca during the month of August or endless entertainment with parties and festivals that are always held in Ibiza. . In addition to this, Spain is one of the most frequented places of the festivals with the world's second most important and largest carnival held in the Canary Islands every February.
The Fallas of Valencia
19 DAYS OF ACTION FOR ANY TASTE
From the 1st to 19th March, València is overturned by Fallas celebrations, a festivity that combines tradition, satire and art which shouldn’t be missed for anything in the world.
The origin of las Fallas comes from the old carpenter’s tradition who, when celebrating the arrival of spring on 19th March, used to burn pieces of wood (parots) that were used to prop up their lights during the winter.
To this bonfire they gradually started to add old belongings and rags, which gave the wooden structure a human-looking aspect, until they became the ninots that we know today. The Valencian sense of humour soon gave the irony shown in the ninots which is maintained at present.
The Fallas celebrations have evolved into temporary works of art which, in some cases, cost millions of euros.
The passion of the Fallas lovers for their celebration has filled the Fallas week with thousands of things to do: traditional (and not so traditional) music, tonnes of gunpowder, emotive religious acts, paellas in the street… Enjoy Fallas with the 5 senses, you must be looking forward to it already!
The Tomatina of Buñol
THE COLOR OF FUN IS RED
La Tomatina Festival happens annually during the last wednesday of August.
It takes place in Buñol, a little village 40 km. from Valencia, Spain with around 10.000 people of population.
In 1945 some young boys decided to get a place among the retinue of a parade during the town festivities. The energy of these teens made that one participant fell down. The participant got mad and started to hit everything in his way. Casually nearby there was a vegetable stall that fell victim of the furious crowd: people started to pelt each other with tomatoes.
Today it became a war of 120 tons of red tomatoes ammunition , and 22.000 locals and people from all over the world are participating.
Tomatina Festival begins at 12am with a bang. Trucks loaded of tomatoes proceed to drive through the fight area while some locals in the back of the trucks are throwing tomatoes at all of the festival goers. As soon as the truck passes, everyone dives on the ground scooping for tomatoes to get themselves armed for the battle…that’s when the fun begins! The following hour will be one of the most intense and hilarious experiences of your life.
The San Fermin Bull Run Festival
San Fermin is an ancient celebration in the city of Pamplona in northern Spain, held annually from July 6 to July 14. The most important activity in this celebration is the encierro, the running of the bulls, but the festival also includes many other traditional events that last throughout the week. It is known in the local language as Sanfermines, and this festival is held in honor of San Fermin, the guardian angel of Pamplona and Navarra as a whole. What happened at the festival is at the center of American writer Ernest Hemingway's work called The Sun Also Rises. San Fermin Festival is probably the most recognized festival in the international arena among the festivals held in Spain.
