GlynIn March 1740 a small boat came ashore at Benidorm with nobody aboard.
The villagers, afraid the crew had died of plague, did the sensible thing and burned it on the beach. When the fire went out, children picking through the ashes found an image of the Virgin with the child in her arms, sitting in what had been the stern, entirely undamaged.
That was taken as a miracle, and it is the reason this town has a patron. She is the Mare de Déu del Sofratge, the Virgen del Sufragio, and along with Sant Jaume she is who the Festes Majors Patronals are for.
In 2026 they run Friday 6 to Wednesday 11 November.
Why this is the week to come
Every other fiesta in the Benidorm calendar has been quietly funding this one. The Marathon of the Euro in September, the verbenas through the summer, the association dinners: the money goes here. This is the town’s own week, and it is the one that visitors almost never see because it falls after the season has closed.
That is precisely the argument for coming. Flights and hotels are at their cheapest, the weather in early November is usually better than anyone in Britain expects, and the town is doing the single thing it does entirely for itself.
The finding, re-staged on Poniente
The centrepiece is the escenificación del hallazgo: the finding of the Virgin, acted out on Poniente beach on the Saturday afternoon, followed by salvos fired in her honour.
They have been staging it since 1971, so it is not an old tradition in itself, but it is a serious one, and it is the most Benidorm thing you will ever watch. A beach that spends ten months of the year covered in sunloungers, being used to re-enact a 285-year-old story about a burnt boat.
The finding itself is commemorated separately on 16 March, the actual anniversary. November is when it is performed.
How the week runs
Updated 3 November 2026 with this year’s times. The Fiestas Commission’s full 2026 programme was published on 26 October, and the times below are taken from it. The council has not yet put out its own copy, and the programme carries the usual clause that acts can be moved or cancelled, so check on the day before you plan around any single one.
The mascletàs, the daytime barrages of pure noise, are on the Avenida de Foietes this year, not the Avenida Jaime I, where the works on the underground car park are. The concerts are split between the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España and L’Hort de Colón.
Friday 6 November opens it. The artistic lighting goes on in Martínez Alejos, the fairground opens and the peñas arrive. The published programme starts on the Saturday, so Friday’s times are not confirmed; in past years the lights went on in the early evening and the peñas paraded late.
Saturday 7 November is the big day.
- 10am: mass at San Jaime and Santa Ana.
- Noon: bells and an aerial bombardment from the Plaça de la Senyoria, then the bands march in from the church square and gather in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España at 1pm to receive the fiesta queens.
- 5pm: the finding of the Virgin, re-enacted on Poniente beach, with salvos.
- 6.30pm: the romería from Poniente up to the church square, with the flower offering, the opening proclamation and fireworks from the Plaça de la Senyoria.
- Late: Manu Núñez in concert at L’Hort de Colón at 11pm; the La Flama orchestra in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España at 11.30pm, followed by the correfocs, the fire-running.
Sunday 8 November is the Virgin’s day.
- 8am: the despertà, firecrackers to wake the town. Hot chocolate for all comers at the Fiestas Commission’s marquee at 9am.
- 11.30am: solemn mass in her honour.
- 2pm: mascletà, Avenida de Foietes.
- 7.30pm: the procession, and the lighting of the Estampeta in the church square. At 11pm the Copletes, the old songs to the Virgin, are sung there.
- Concerts: Superlaser at 10pm and Funambulista at 11.30pm in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España; the Código orchestra at L’Hort de Colón at 11.30pm.
Monday 9 November is Sant Jaume’s day, on the same pattern.
- 8am: despertà, and hot chocolate at 9am.
- 11.30am: solemn mass for Sant Jaume.
- 2pm: mascletà, Avenida de Foietes. At 4pm there is a Valencian pilota tournament, the old street ball game, in Calle Metge Pérez Martorell.
- 7.30pm: the procession and the Estampeta of Sant Jaume. Next year’s honorary stewards are announced inside the church.
- Concerts: Leticia Sabater at 10.30pm and Danny Romero at 1am in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España; the Conecta2 orchestra at L’Hort de Colón at 11pm.
Tuesday 10 November is for the town’s dead, and then turns comic.
- 10.30am: requiem mass, a laurel wreath at the monument to those lost at sea in the Plaça de la Senyoria, and offerings at the town’s two cemeteries.
- Noon: the sardinada, sardines for all comers, in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España.
- 2pm: mascletà, Avenida de Foietes.
- 7pm: the Desfile del Humor, the peñas’ humour parade, along Venus, Ruzafa and Martínez Alejos.
- 11pm: a mascletà after dark, Avenida de Foietes, and the Shakara orchestra at L’Hort de Colón at 11.30pm.
Wednesday 11 November closes it.
- 11am: the Festa de les Festes, a parade from the Plaza Neptuno to the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España.
- 1pm: a children’s mascletà and a shower of sweets in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España, then the last daytime mascletà on the Avenida de Foietes at 2pm.
- 6pm: the float parade, from the Parque de Elche to the Avenida de Alcoy, ending with the fireworks that close the fiesta.
For families, there is a children’s play park in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España each morning from Sunday to Tuesday, and children’s theatre at L’Hort de Colón in the late afternoons.
Expect local public holidays in the middle of it, so banks and offices will shut.
A warning about the mascletà
If you have not experienced one, a mascletà is not a firework display. It happens in daylight and it is made entirely of noise: several minutes of coordinated explosions building to something you feel through the pavement and in your chest.
British visitors routinely misunderstand this and stand too close, or bring a dog, or wonder why everyone else is holding their mouth slightly open. Do that last one. It equalises the pressure and it is what the locals are doing.
The day after: fancy dress
The Patronals are the week visitors almost never see. The day after them is the one they fly in for.
Fancy dress day falls on the Thursday after the Patronals finish, every year, and it is not in the council’s programme at all. It belongs to the British bars of the New Town, and from lunchtime the streets around them fill with people in costume until well into the night. By that pattern, 2026’s is Thursday 12 November. It is unofficial, so check the date with the bars nearer the time.
If you are coming for the fancy dress, arrive a day early. The float parade and the closing fireworks of the Patronals are on the Wednesday evening, and most people who come for the Thursday never know they missed them.
Practical notes
The events spread across the New Town, the church, Poniente beach and the fairground, so this is not an Old Town week in the way the summer is. The Old Town bars are where everyone ends up afterwards.
Book early if you want to be central. It is cheap by Benidorm standards but the town does fill, mostly with Spanish visitors from the surrounding towns.
Take a coat for the evenings. November days here are often shirtsleeves; the nights are not.
The rest of the year
The Patronals close the fiesta year. Six weeks earlier the town has Moros y Cristianos, and six weeks after it the Three Kings open the next one. The full year of Benidorm festivals has the lot, month by month, from the council’s own published dates.
The fancy dress photographs on this page were sent in by Bulletin readers Andrew and Janet. Thank you.
