claude-api☀️ THE BENIDORM BULLETIN
Your weekly dose of sun, sangria, and what’s on
Issue 57 | Sunday 26 April 2026
From the Editor
Right then — it’s a big Sunday. Sixteen years ago, someone had the idea of filling a Spanish resort with Elvis impersonators for a long weekend, and rather brilliantly, it worked. Today the Benidorm Elvis Festival wraps up its 2026 edition with the grand finale show, and if you’re in resort this weekend, you’ll know all about it. The sequins alone are visible from the A7.
Elsewhere this week, we’ve got five events coming up across April and May, the usual debate doing the rounds on the forums (this time about beaches and cigarettes — more on that shortly), and a Hot Topic that’s genuinely going to affect how you plan your summer. All in all, a good week to be a Benidorm fan. Let’s get into it.
Lead Story
The King Has Entered the Building — For the 16th Time
Europe’s biggest Elvis festival reaches its grand finale today. And what a weekend it’s been.
If you’ve been in Benidorm since Friday, you’ll have noticed something in the air. It’s not the sea breeze. It’s Blue Suede Shoes playing on a loop from the Hotel Meliá pool, and the faint sound of several hundred men arguing over who does the better lip curl.
The Benidorm Elvis Festival has been running for 16 years now, and it remains one of those events that perfectly captures what Benidorm does best — taking something utterly joyful and committing to it completely. Since Friday, the resort has hosted poolside welcome parties, tribute acts, competitions, and more rhinestone jumpsuits than an average person sees in a lifetime. Today, Sunday 26 April, it all wraps up with the grand finale show.
This is, by any measure, a serious event. Thousands of fans — many of them returning year after year, same hotel, same friends, same Elvis wig — make the trip specifically for this weekend. There’s a genuine community to it, and a real warmth. It’s also an excellent few days to be in resort even if you’re not an Elvis person. The atmosphere is electric and the fancy dress is spectacular.
What this means for you
- If you’re in resort today, the grand finale is ticketed — worth checking availability at the festival box office or your hotel reception
- The Hotel Meliá has been the hub of the action, but the party spills across the whole resort
- For the converted: the Elvis Festival returns in 2027. Already worth putting in the diary
What’s On This Month
A brilliant run of events between now and the end of May — and most of them won’t cost you a penny.
📅 THURSDAY 30 APRIL – SUNDAY 3 MAY
Festa de la Creu (Festival of the Holy Cross)
Old Town (Casco Antiguo) | Free
One of Benidorm’s loveliest traditions. Local neighbourhoods spend weeks building elaborately decorated crosses from fresh flowers, then display them throughout the Old Town in a competition that’s been running for generations. The main pilgrimage to the Benidorm Cross on 1 May kicks off at 08:00 sharp (Spanish 08:00, so possibly 08:15) with church bells, a procession, and a mass with floral offerings. It’s free, it’s photogenic, and it’s a genuine window into local life that most tourists walk straight past. Don’t be one of them.
📅 FRIDAY 8 MAY – SUNDAY 10 MAY
Mercado Medieval (Medieval Market)
Benidorm Old Town | Free
Every May, the Old Town gets a full medieval makeover — costumed traders, artisan stalls, roasted meats, mead (yes, mead), and live entertainment across three days. It sounds gimmicky. It is absolutely not gimmicky. If you’ve got kids, they’ll love it. If you haven’t got kids, you’ll still want the handmade leather goods and a tankard of something. Free entry throughout.
📅 FRIDAY 15 MAY – SUNDAY 17 MAY
San Isidro Fiestas
Benidorm town centre | Free
The feast of San Isidro, patron saint of farmers, brings three days of music, dancing, local food and general good-natured fiesta energy to the town centre. Many visitors stumble into this one without knowing it was happening, which is perhaps the best way to experience it. The streets come alive, and the locals are — as ever — extremely generous about sharing the party with anyone who turns up.
📅 SATURDAY 23 MAY
Iberia Festival 2026
Benidorm (venue TBC) | Ticketed
A major outdoor festival of Spanish pop and rock, returning to Benidorm for another year. It’s a big, vibrant, proper festival — and a great excuse for a late-May trip if you’ve been looking for one. Keep an eye on the Visit Benidorm official site for venue confirmation as it’s announced.
Tonight’s Entertainment
A strong weekend across the show bars, with something for every mood. Lineups can shift at short notice — check the boards outside venues before heading in.
🎭 ADELE — PERFORMED BY AISHA NICOLE
Sunday 26 April | 21:00 | Greeny’s Cabaret Club
If you want something more intimate after the Elvis Festival chaos, Greeny’s is the move. Aisha Nicole’s Adele tribute is genuinely impressive — the kind of show where the room goes quiet because people are actually listening. Hello doesn’t stand a chance. Walk-in welcome.
🎭 THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOW
Sunday 26 April | 23:00 | Philippines 10
A full theatrical production based on The Greatest Showman at one of Benidorm’s most ambitious show bars. Philippines 10 puts proper production values into everything they do, and this is no exception. Free in, late start, spectacular finish.
🎭 QUEEN FOREVER
Sunday 26 April | Midnight | Morgan Tavern
The natural end to a very big weekend. Queen Forever at the Morgan Tavern is a Benidorm institution — singalong classics from start to finish, free in, and exactly as good as it sounds at midnight after an Elvis finale. We Are the Champions, indeed.
☀️ Weather Watch — Late April / May
Late April and May are, frankly, the sweet spot. Warm enough to sit on the beach without a fleece, not yet hot enough to melt into the pavement. You’re looking at around 20°C during the day, evenings cooling to a perfectly cardigan-friendly 12°C, and eight hours of sunshine daily. Roughly three days of rain across the whole month — brief, light, and largely ignorable.
Rain days: ~3 this month | Sea: 17°C
What to pack: Light layers for evenings, sunscreen (SPF 30 minimum — it’s stronger out there than it looks), sunglasses, a light jacket for after dark, comfortable shoes for the fiestas, and your swimwear. The sea is 17°C, which is perfectly swimmable for anyone with a reasonable tolerance for bracing. Which, given we’re British, should be all of us.
❓ You Asked…
“We’re going in late April — will it be rammed with stag and hen parties? Where should we avoid?”
Honestly? Late April does attract its fair share of celebrations, and the English Zone on a Friday night is exactly what you’d expect it to be. But here’s the thing — Benidorm is a big place, and it does a brilliant job of being different things to different people simultaneously. For a quieter time, head for Poniente Beach rather than Levante, and spend an evening or two in the Old Town, which has an almost completely different atmosphere. The stag circuit is well-worn and therefore easy to navigate around — or into, depending on your preference. It’s one of Benidorm’s genuine gifts: there really is something for everyone, often within ten minutes’ walk of each other.
“Is the coastal tram worth doing? And how much is it?”
Yes — emphatically yes. The TRAM Metropolità d’Alacant runs along the coast from Benidorm all the way to Alicante, and the views are genuinely lovely: sea on one side, mountains on the other, at a pace that actually lets you take it in. It’s one of the most underrated things you can do on a Costa Blanca holiday — cheap, runs regularly, and far more scenic than a taxi. Fares are best checked at the tram station as prices can vary, but you won’t be looking at much. Get on at Benidorm, get off when something looks interesting. You can’t really go wrong.
🔥 Hot Topic
Smoke-free beaches: sensible step or overreach?
Benidorm City Council’s PSOE group has proposed banning smoking on all of the resort’s beaches, a move that would see Benidorm join the Valencian Community’s Network of Smoke-Free Beaches. To be absolutely clear: this has not been passed into law. Nothing has changed yet — you can smoke on Benidorm’s beaches this summer exactly as you could last summer.
That said, the forums and Facebook groups are very much alive with opinions. Non-smokers and families are largely in favour, and it’s hard to argue with the appeal of a beach where nobody’s smoking into your sun cream. Others feel it’s a restriction too far and point to the existing partial non-smoking zones on Levante and Poniente as sufficient. Both sides make a reasonable case.
We’ll keep you updated as this develops. In the meantime — what do you think? Drop us a line. We genuinely want to know.
💡 Tip of the Week
Thinking about summer? Stop thinking and start booking.
TripAdvisor’s Summer 2026 Travel Index has confirmed what most of us already suspected: Spain is the number one destination in British travel searches this year, and Benidorm is leading the charge. Great news for Benidorm, slightly frustrating news for anyone still umming and ahhing about July. Prices are climbing, availability is tightening, and the best hotel deals for peak summer are going.
If the summer window has closed on you, don’t overlook autumn — September and October on the Costa Blanca are genuinely beautiful, and the deals are still very much there. September in Benidorm might honestly be better than August. Just putting that out there.
🤔 Did You Know?
Benidorm City Council has launched a formal inspection campaign targeting souvenir shops displaying T-shirts, gifts and window displays with sexist, racist, homophobic or sexually explicit content. Inspectors have begun visiting outlets across the resort’s tourist areas, with fines for shops that don’t remove offensive stock. It’s part of the council’s ongoing drive to sharpen up the resort’s image — and from what we’re seeing on UK Facebook groups, the vast majority of visitors are applauding it. Benidorm has always been a place that welcomes absolutely everyone; good to see the council putting that in writing.
And that’s your lot for Issue 57. A big weekend, a cracking month of events ahead, and the weather firmly on your side — it’s a fine time to love Benidorm.
Next week we’ll have more from the forums, an update on that smoke-free beach proposal, and a closer look at what’s coming in mid-May. Watch this space.
Until next time — keep the sun on your face and the sangria cold. ☀️
— The Benidorm Bulletin Team
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