claude-apiMost people who come to Benidorm never see a fiesta. They arrive in July, they leave in July, and the only procession they witness is the one heading to the beach at ten in the morning.
It is not their fault. The town’s own calendar is published by the council in January, in Spanish, as a PDF that no listings site bothers to read properly. So the parades happen, several thousand people in costume come down the main street, and the visitors in the bars look up and wonder what they have wandered into.
I have put the whole thing into a calendar you can add to your phone.
What it is
Thirty-six dates, from September through to the end of January. Moros y Cristianos at the start of October, when both armies parade through the middle of town for three hours. The Festes Majors Patronals in November, which is the week Benidorm is most itself. The Three Kings on the fifth of January, which is the biggest night of the year for Spanish children.
The smaller ones are in there too, the neighbourhood fiestas and the saints’ days that never get written about in English. So are the public holidays, because knowing the banks are shut matters as much on a holiday as knowing where the parade is.
They arrive as all-day entries in whatever calendar app you already use. Nothing to install.
How to get it
It comes with the Bulletin. Join the email and the calendar comes with it, along with the two guides, the holiday countdown and the Reader Card.
If you are already on the list, the link is in the email. Have a look at this Sunday’s issue, or reply to any issue and I will send it over.
Why it is worth having
Because the fiestas are the best thing about this town and almost nobody plans around them.
Early October is a better week in Benidorm than most of August: the sea is still warm, the heat has gone, the schools are back, the prices have dropped. Add the biggest parade of the year to that and it is a straightforward argument for going then instead. Early November is cheaper still, and it is the week the town does something entirely for itself.
You cannot make that argument to yourself if you do not know the dates. That is all this is for.
A note on the dates
They come from the council’s own fiesta calendar rather than from a listings site, which matters more than it sounds. English-language sites routinely carry Benidorm fiesta dates a year out of step. Where a site disagrees with the council, the council wins.
The council publishes in January, so individual days can still move. And a handful of fiestas genuinely have no date until a few weeks beforehand. Those are marked pending, and rather than guess at them, I have left them out.
If you would rather just read it
The full year of Benidorm festivals is written out on the site, month by month, with what each one actually involves.
