The famous Cordoba Patio Contest (4th to 15th May 2005), in which home-owners compete for the prize awarded to the most beautifully decorated patio. The map provided by the local Tourism Office will help you find the competing courtyards which are open to the public during the day. This one is not to be missed for those who like flowers and gardens or are just interested to look inside the patios of private houses.

 A lively fair dedicated to the Manzanilla which is a special dry sherry wine produced in San Lucar de Barrameda. This intense fair which is organised by the town council and supported by the local wine producers last for several days about the third week in May.

Andalucia is famous for its pilgrimages or "romerías" - so called because pilgrims traditionally walked to Rome, and therefore became known as "romeros" - to popular shrines, around which fiestas are held. 

Many towns celebrate their Romaria to a local shrine a few miles away. It is a day in the countryside visiting a chapel or a sanctuary. Interestingly it is one of the few fiestas that is celebrated outside the nucleus of the town. The sanctuary is a physical and a spiritual point of reference. The departure from the town for the sanctuary is a proud public ceremony with all the necessary elements in a certain order. Flags and standards carried are by horsemen, decorated carts, men or women who are serving a penance, then tractors, lorries and all sorts of agricultural vehicles. The municipal band usually provides the music.

Perhaps the most spectacular is the one devoted to the Virgen del Rocío, popularly called "El Rocio" for short. Nearly a million people from all over Spain and Andalucia make the long journey to gather in a small hamlet of El Rocio in the marshlands of the Guadalquivir River delta (south of Almonte), where the statue of the "Madonna of the Dew" has been worshipped since 1280. The pilgrims come on horseback and in gaily decorated covered wagons from all over the region, transforming the area into a colourful and noisy party.

 The climax of the festival is the weekend before Pentercost Monday (5 June 2006, 28 May 2007, 12 May 2008, 1 June 2009, 24 May 2010). In the early hours of the Monday the Virgin is brought out of the church. This remarkable event is always televised.

Corpus Christi (the Catholic feast celebrating the presence of the body of Christ in the holy wafer) is held in June, beginning on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. A solemn and magnificent procession bears the consecrated host through the streets. Although Corpus Christi is celebrated everywhere in Andalucia, it is most famous in Granada, especially for the Granada Festival of Music and Dance, which supplants the passion plays that traditionally followed the religious rituals. Representatives of the local government walk side by side with the churchmen, followed by the people, along streets strewn with sweet-smelling cypress branches and flowers.

 The Corpus Christi festival was created in 1246 in Liege, Belgium, and after the Archbishop of that town was elected Pope it was later adopted throughout Europe. It reached Toledo 1280 and in Sevilla 1282 and all Spain by XIV century. It was particularly popular in XVI and XVII centuries. The solemn processions represent the power of the church. The civil and military authorities also take part. All in their commemorative uniform, a colourful spectacle, and takes place in most town in Spain.

 In Granada it lasts three days where it is one of the most important of festivals in the towns calendar. Actually Corpus Christi is celebrated in most towns in Andalucia but of particular note are Zahara de la Sierra, Seville, Cadiz, Málaga, Casabermeja, Marchena, Torreperogil.

Cabra Gypsy Festival, province of Córdoba by gypsies to the hermitage of Santa María.

The pilgrimage to the shrine of El Cristo del Paño, in the castle town of Moclin, in northern Granada Province, not far from Montefrio. This painting of Christ bearing the cross is believed to heal aged people of their cataracts (el paño, or the cloth, is the popular name for this condition, which "veils" one´s sight). Touching the painting is also supposed to make childless women fertile, and the miracle is mentioned in Lorca´s tragic play Barren.

La Virgen del Mar (Virgin of the Sea) is the patron saint of Almería, and her statue is born on a carriage decorated with flowers to the hermitage dedicated to her. The most stirring moment of the procession is when she is taken from the lighthouse to the dock by boat.

Held on the night of the 24th of June, and is celebrated on Andalucia´s beaches with bonfires and fireworks. For good luck, the tradition is to dip their feet in the sea just after midnight. Tread carefully as sometimes the lively ones end up in the sea fully clothed.

The 'day fair' takes place it the streets of the town itself. Streets are closed to traffic, businesses close for the week. Tables and chairs are set up and the bars serve food and drink in the street, and music plays from every corner. People of all ages sing and dance. Visitors are always welcome.

 At night, the fair shifts to the public fairground or "recinto ferial" on the outskirts of the town. There is a traditional amusement park with lots of rides for the children, and tents or "casetas" set up by the various clubs, associations and political parties of the town, some with entertainment and all with a bar. . Many, some would say too many, of the Casetas are by private invitation only. Outsiders are invariably welcomed, just ask if you can go in, if not try the next one. There is always the large 'Caseta Municipal' put up by the town council and open to everybody. On some evenings there will be a top billing singer, for which tickets will be sold on the door at a reasonable price. These are usually very popular and often sell out.

 The ferias usually start midweek and finish on Sunday night. In the larger towns they start at midnight on the Sunday night with fireworks. (Monday after the feria is often a local holiday designed for recovering from the festivities).

Every town and village in Andalucia has its own feria or fair, and it would be possible, if one had superhuman powers of endurance, to spend the whole summer following them about the region. The summer annual feria originated in the middle ages, and was the principal means of interchange of local products within the kingdom. The first feria takes place at Seville in April (two weeks after Semana Santa) and the last is at San Pedro de Alcántara in mid October.

                   Here are dates for fair-goers of some of the larger towns.

Year after year, ritual and skill join hands to stage Spain´s bullfighting season, which stretches from April to October. The most important bullfight ferias - week-long events which feature a corrida every afternoon - are held to coincide with the yearly fairs of Sevilla, Córdoba, Jerez, El Puerto de Santa María, Algeciras and Sanlúcar de Barrameda, with others such as Ecija, Granada, Málaga, Almería, Antequera, La Línea, Priego, Cabra, Pozoblanco, Villacarrillo, Ubeda, Baeza, Jaén, Aroche, Almonaster la Real and Campofrío, Higuera de la Sierra and Huelva.

Ronda holds a very popular type of bullfight known as a "corrida goyesca"in early September, in which the fighters dress in the costumes shown in Goya's famous 18th century engravings

Each town has one or two patron saints. There will be a local bank holiday and celebrations on the day of the patron saint of the town according to the catholic calendar. Check for dates in the town's pages in our regional section.

This festival is more popular in the East of Spain, in Andalucia in the provinces of Granada and Almeria, It takes place on many different days through out the year depending on the locality. San Sebastian on 20 January, San Roque 15 August, San Antonio on June 13th are popular choices

The origins are obviously the battles following the re-conquest on the XVI and XVII century. The usual format for the fiesta is first a procession of the Moors and the Christians, then a theatrical enactment of verbal attacks and rejections by both groups, a battle enactment with skirmishes and dances, the conversion or the death of the moors, and finally homage to the patron saint.

Nowadays with greater affluence the uniforms are more spectacular. The Christians wear the uniforms of the soldiers of the re-conquest. The moors wear basic short sleeved cotton jackets.

All Saints Day
On November 1st, fiestas called "Tosantos" (contraction of "todos los santos", or "all saints") are celebrated in the markets of Cadiz and the surrounding villages.

The feast of San Martín
On 11th November, is the occasion for the slaughtering of pigs, in preparation for the winter-time drying of hams and sausages, at a fiesta called la matanza - literally, the killing - in all the towns and villages of the mountain areas of Andalucia. The day begins with the killing of the pigs and is spent butchering the carcass and stuffing sausages and black pudding. A great deal of eating and drinking accompanies these events.

Christmas Eve
The quietest evening of the year in Andalucia. Even most of the bars are closed. An evening reserved for a family dinner.

The Verdiales Music Festival
The Verdiales Music Festival takes place 28th of December at the Venta at 'Puerta de la Torre' on the C3311 road towards Almogia. The Pandas or groups of musicians from local villages compete on stage. More interesting are the spontaneous practice and jamming sessions where they fiddle, strum and rattle their instruments in a cacophonous frenzy, while bottles of potent Málaga wine and aguadiente are passed from hand to hand. They appear in traditional costumes with unusual flowery headgear also festooned with mirrors, bells, beads, and ribbons.