GlynAsk most British visitors what happens in Benidorm at the start of October and you will get a blank look. Ask anyone who lives here and you will get a date.
Moros y Cristianos is the biggest street event in the Benidorm year that is not put on for tourists. Moors and Christians: two armies, several thousand costumes, live bands, black powder, and four days of the town re-enacting a version of its own history that is part fact and part enthusiastic invention. It happens across the Valencian region, Alcoy’s are the most famous, and Benidorm’s are large enough that the main parade shuts the centre of town.
In 2026 it runs Thursday 1 to Sunday 4 October. That date comes from the council’s own fiesta calendar rather than a listings site.
What actually happens, day by day
The fiesta runs Thursday to Sunday and follows the same running order each year. The times below are those used in recent years and are given so you can plan roughly. The official 2026 programme had not been published when we wrote this. Check it before you fix anything.
Thursday — the Moors take the town
The Christian camp goes up in the afternoon, usually in the Plaça SSMM Reyes de España, with craft stalls and medieval games. Then at about eight in the evening comes the Parlamento de la Invasión Mora, in which the Moorish side arrives and takes the town.
This is the opening act and the quietest of the four. If you want to understand what the rest of the weekend is about, this is the one to watch.
Friday — the diana, and the Christians answer back
The Diana is a morning parade, in recent years leaving Calle Escuelas at half past ten and working through Tomás Ortuño and the Paseo de la Carretera towards the Plaza de la Hispanidad. It is smaller than the evening parades, much less crowded, and considerably easier to photograph.
Later in the day the Christians reply with the Embajada, a formal exchange of speeches between the two sides, followed by the reconquest. It is theatre performed in the street, in Valencian and Spanish, and you will not follow the words. You do not need to.
Saturday — the Gran Entrada
This is the one. The Gran Entrada Mora y Cristiana, early evening, both armies parading through the main streets in full costume with their own bands. If you see one thing all weekend, see this.
Two practical points. It is long, frequently three hours or more, and it does not hurry. And the good kerbside spots along the route go early, so if you want to sit down, get there well before the advertised start and take something to sit on.
Sunday — peace, flowers and the retreta
The Parlamento de Paz around midday settles the argument, followed by the flower offering at the church of San Jaime and Santa Ana and a solemn mass at one o’clock.
The weekend closes with the Retreta in the evening, a parade of floats that in recent years has run through Tomás Ortuño, Venus, Ruzafa, Martínez Alejos and Gambo into the Plaza de la Hispanidad, with fireworks after.
Where to stand
The parades run through the New Town’s main streets rather than the Old Town, which surprises people. The Plaza de la Hispanidad is where most of the routes finish, so it is the busiest and the hardest to get into late.
If you would rather not stand in a crowd for three hours, the trick is the same one that works for Pride: watch the first half hour of the Entrada from somewhere along Tomás Ortuño, then walk up into the Old Town when your legs give out. The bars up there fill with people coming off the route, half of them still in costume, and it is a better evening than the last hour of any parade.
What to expect if you have never been
Two things catch British visitors out.
The first is the black powder. Arcabucería, the firing of muskets, is part of the tradition, and it is loud in a way that a description does not prepare you for. If you are bringing small children or a nervous dog, stand well back.
The second is the seriousness of it. These are not people in fancy dress. The comparsas are year-round associations with their own premises, their own bands and their own money, and being in one is a family thing that runs across generations. Watch, applaud, take photographs of the parade. Do not wander into the middle of it.
Is it worth planning a trip around?
Yes, and more so than most of the calendar.
Early October in Benidorm is one of the better weeks of the year on its own terms: the sea is still warm, the heat has gone, the school holidays are over and the prices have come down from August. Add the biggest parade of the year to that and it is a strong argument for going then rather than in July.
Book early if you want to be central. The town fills for it, and Spanish visitors come in from the surrounding towns for the Saturday.
The rest of the year
Moros y Cristianos is the loudest thing in the calendar but not the only thing. The full year of Benidorm festivals runs from the Three Kings in January through to New Year’s Eve, and October is the busiest month in it: the Festes del Roser follow immediately, two public holidays land in the same fortnight, and the Almudena processions close the month.
