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Popular festival · Seville
A weeklong party in Seville’s fairground, between Los Remedios and the Guadalquivir: streets of decorated casetas with lanterns, a noon parade of horses and carriages, flamenco-style dresses, sevillanas danced until the early hours, and the amusement park on the Calle del Infierno.
In the photo: Seville
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
Click a photo to enlarge it.
Seville April Fair — Seville
In April or May, one or two weeks after Holy Week, depending on the date of Easter; it lasts about a week, from the night of the pescaíto and the alumbrao until the fireworks on the last night.
April/May
Dates change every year: check this year's date before you travel.
The festival
The Feria de Abril is Seville’s big spring festival. One or two weeks after Holy Week, the city sets up, on the other side of the river in the Los Remedios neighborhood, a temporary town of yellow dirt streets called the Real de la Feria, with hundreds of casetas—small striped tents decorated with paper lanterns, the farolillos. For about a week, locals and visitors spend day and night there, eating, drinking, talking and dancing sevillanas, with women dressed in flamenca outfits and many men in short suits and wide-brimmed hats.
The event began in 1847 as a cattle fair, proposed to the city council by two councilors, José María Ybarra and Narciso Bonaplata, at the Prado de San Sebastián near the center. Over time, livestock trade became less important and the festivities moved to the foreground, with family, friends, company and association casetas. Since 1973 the Real has been in its current grounds between Los Remedios and Tablada, and it is assembled and dismantled every year.
Everything starts on the noche del pescaíto, when caseta owners dine on fried fish with their guests. At midnight comes the alumbrao, the lighting of the lights on the portada, the large entrance gate whose design changes each year, and of the streets of the Real. From then on, each day follows two rhythms. From late morning to late afternoon the parade of horses and carriages fills the streets of the Real: riders with amazonas side-saddled, carriages pulled by decorated horses, and people moving from caseta to caseta. At night the music rises inside the casetas, sevillanas are danced in circles and the activity continues late into the night.
Most casetas are private and only admit members and guests; for visitors without local acquaintances there are public casetas open to everyone, such as those run by the municipal districts and the Caseta de Sevilla. Beside the Real is the Calle del Infierno, the amusement park with rides, stalls and circus shows, nicknamed for its noise and lights. The last night ends with fireworks over the Guadalquivir at midnight, and the turning off of the portada lights closes the fair until the next year.
The fair is the highlight of the Fiestas de Primavera, which begin with Holy Week, and it shows a side of Seville life made of gatherings, festive dress and dancing. For visitors, it’s worth walking through the Real by day to see the horses and costumes, returning at night to see the lights, and using the week to explore the historic center and the Triana neighborhood nearby.
The night of the alumbrao, when the portada and the streets of the Real are lit all at once. The parade of horses and carriages from late morning to late afternoon, with riders, amazonas and decorated carriages. A stroll through the streets of the Real to see the casetas, the farolillos and the flamenca dresses. An evening in a public caseta, with sevillanas danced in a circle. The Calle del Infierno, lit up at night. The fireworks over the Guadalquivir on the final night that close the fair. A walk through Triana, on the other side of the bridge, before or after the festivities.
The Real is outside the historic center, between Los Remedios and Tablada; you can walk there across the San Telmo bridge, take the metro, use special bus lines or a taxi, and many visitors walk there by day and use transport at night. Entry to private casetas requires an invitation; public casetas are open to everyone and appear on the official map of the fairgrounds. Inside the casetas, food and drinks are generally paid for with tokens or meal vouchers bought on site. Wearing a flamenca dress is not required for visitors but is welcome; neat clothing and comfortable shoes for the Real’s dirt streets are sufficient. Spring afternoons can be warm: bring water, a hat and sunscreen for daytime and a light sweater for after midnight. Demand is highest in the first days and on Saturday and Sunday.
The pescaíto frito, fried fish and seafood, opens the fair on the first night and appears throughout the week. In the casetas you’ll find jamón, cheeses, tortilla de patata, shrimp and prawns, montaditos and other small dishes to share. For drinks, the tradition is rebujito, a mix of manzanilla—the dry wine from Sanlúcar de Barrameda—with lemon soda and ice, served in pitchers, and also fino wine.
Accommodation in Seville tends to be busy and in higher demand during the fair; book early. Visitors without invitations to private casetas should plan to use the public casetas. Carriage rides inside the Real are run by authorized coachmen at official rates. Seville’s municipal tourism office publishes the dates each year, the fairground map and the list of public casetas.
In the city
April/May
March/AprilIn the week before Easter, from Palm Sunday to Resurrection, in March or April.
During Málaga’s Holy Week on the Costa del Sol, the brotherhoods carry enormous floats through the city center, borne on the shoulders of hundreds of porters, accompanied by marching bands, daytime and nighttime processions, and moments unique to the city, such as the Legion’s landing at the port on Holy Thursday.
March/AprilFrom Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday, in March or April depending on the date of Easter; smaller processions begin on the previous Friday, Friday of Sorrows.
During Holy Week, the brotherhoods of Seville, the capital of Andalusia, carry images of Christ and the Virgin through the streets on gilded floats carried by costaleros and followed by long lines of penitents, on routes that pass by the cathedral day and night, until the early hours of Good Friday.
May/JuneIn the week of Corpus Christi, in May or June depending on the date of Easter: the fair begins on the previous Saturday, the procession takes place on Corpus Thursday, and the celebration ends the following Saturday.
Granada’s main week in Andalusia brings together the Corpus Christi procession, which leaves the cathedral through streets strewn with aromatic herbs, the Tarasca, a figure that parades on Wednesday wearing the season’s fashion, and a fair of casetas, horses, and lights at the Almanjáyar fairground.
Your questions
One or two weeks after Holy Week, so it falls in April or, in some years, in May. It starts with the noche del pescaíto and the lighting of the lights and lasts about a week.
Private casetas admit only members and guests. Visitors without invitations can enter public casetas, such as those run by municipal districts and the Caseta de Sevilla, which are open to everyone.
It is the lighting of the lights on the portada and the streets of the Real on the first night, after the pescaíto dinner. It marks the fair’s official opening.
It is the fair’s typical drink: manzanilla, the dry wine from Sanlúcar de Barrameda, mixed with lemon soda and ice, served in pitchers inside the casetas.
The Real is in Los Remedios, on the other side of the river. You can walk there from the center across the San Telmo Bridge, or go by metro, special buses, and taxi.
Festivals and events in Spain
MayIn the first weeks of May, for about two weeks, after the Cruces de Mayo at the start of the month; the dates are set each year by the city council.
In May, residents of Córdoba in Andalusia open the patios of their homes—filled with pots of flowers—to the public in a municipal contest that has existed since 1921 and is on UNESCO’s list of intangible heritage; it takes place during the month of the Cruces de Mayo, the flowered balconies and the city fair.
MayAround May 15, the day of Saint Isidro Labrador, patron saint of Madrid; the program lasts about a week before and after the date.
Madrid’s patron saint festivities around May 15: Madrileños dressed as chulapos dance the chotis, have picnics on the Pradera de San Isidro, drink water from the hermitage’s spring and eat rosquillas, with concerts and traditional events in the Plaza Mayor, Las Vistillas and neighborhoods.
JanuaryOn January 20, the feast day of Saint Sebastian, the city's patron: the celebration begins at midnight between January 19 and 20 and ends at the following midnight.
For 24 hours on January 20, San Sebastián, in the Basque Country, honors its patron saint to the sound of drums and barrels: uniformed companies parade through the city playing the marches of Raimundo Sarriegi, from the raising of the flag in Plaza de la Constitución until the lowering in the same square.
February/MarchAt the end of winter, between February and March, following the movable Carnival calendar: the contests and the queen’s gala take place in the preceding weeks, and the streets celebrate from the opening cavalcade until the weekend after Ash Wednesday.
The capital of Tenerife’s Carnival, in the Canary Islands, with a monumental fantasy queen, murgas, comparsas and rondallas, the big Coso parade on Carnival Tuesday and balls that fill the squares and avenues of the center until dawn.
MarchFrom March 1 to 19, with the main days from March 15 to 19; the official opening, the Crida, is on the last Sunday of February.
Valencia’s festival, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, in which hundreds of satirical monuments of wood, cardboard and cork are erected in the streets, visited for days and burned on the night of March 19 amid fireworks, music and flowers.
JuneFrom June 20 to 24, with the cremà on the night of June 24–25, St. John’s night; the mascletàs at Plaza de los Luceros begin a few days earlier.
Alicante’s official festival on the Costa Blanca: satirical sculptures erected in the neighborhoods are burned on St. John’s night after a large palm-shaped fireworks display launched from Castillo de Santa Bárbara, with mascletàs, parades and a floral offering.