Tamborrada of San Sebastián

The festival

What is Tamborrada of San Sebastián

The Tamborrada is San Sebastián’s major winter festival — Donostia in Basque. On January 20, the city’s patron saint day, companies of drums and barrels take the streets for a full day without pause, always playing the same melodies that every local knows by heart. For visitors, it’s a chance to see the city in celebration outside the beach season, on a day when almost every neighborhood has its own parade.

The tradition is old. In 1597, during a plague epidemic, the city vowed to carry the saint’s relic in procession each year on his day. The Tamborrada as it is known formed in the 1830s as a carnival troupe that paraded the streets to honor the patron; the custom stuck and eventually separated from Carnival. The uniforms follow the military cut of Gipuzkoan battalions from the Napoleonic wars, and many companies also dress as cooks, recalling the gastronomic societies that sustain the festival.

Each company brings together drums, which act as soldiers, and barrels, played with sticks by those dressed as cooks, along with a brass band, flag bearers and canteen attendants. The repertoire is by Raimundo Sarriegi, a 19th-century Donostia composer, led by the Marcha de San Sebastián. Companies belong to gastronomic societies, clubs, schools and neighborhood associations, and each has its own route, stops and time to march.

The most awaited moment is the flag raising. At midnight between January 19 and 20, in Plaza de la Constitución in the heart of the Parte Vieja, the mayor hoists the city’s blue-and-white flag while the Gaztelubide society’s company and drummers from other companies play the march and the whole square sings along. From that moment until the next midnight, drums are sounding somewhere in the city. At noon, schoolchildren parade in the Tamborrada Infantil, which sets off from the vicinity of the town hall, by the Alderdi Eder gardens, in front of La Concha bay.

The ending is as solemn as the start. At midnight on January 20, the Unión Artesana company lowers the flag in the same Plaza de la Constitución, and the festival does not return until the following year. Between those moments, the Parte Vieja, with its narrow streets, pintxo bars and gastronomic societies, is one of the best places to wander. The Tamborrada is worth the trip for anyone who enjoys local traditional festivals, live music and an entire city on the streets in a month when San Sebastián receives fewer visitors.