{"id":2555,"date":"2014-01-02T11:12:06","date_gmt":"2014-01-02T11:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/?p=2555"},"modified":"2014-01-08T11:48:01","modified_gmt":"2014-01-08T11:48:01","slug":"fiestas-ferias-and-festivals-of-andalucia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/fiestas-ferias-and-festivals-of-andalucia\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiestas, Ferias and Festivals of Andalucia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andaluc\u00eda is justly famous for its fiestas (a word that means both party and holiday), which cover the full range from the solemn (often passionately so), to the riotous and celebratory, especially in spring. So, if you\u2019re planning a holiday in the South of Spain this year, and are thinking of experiencing one of the traditional fairs or some religious processions, now\u2019s the time to be getting out your diaries and making a note of the dates.<\/p>\n

The first fiesta of the year (after the Magic Kings<\/a> on January 5) is definitely the party kind. The Cadiz Carnival, which this year takes place from February 27 to March 9, is the largest on mainland Spain, a ten-day spree of processions, concerts, children\u2019s shows, street theatre and the like, many of them with a satirical edge, the highlight being a singing competition for satirical and humorous songs. Oh, and there\u2019s lots of eating and drinking, too.<\/p>\n

\"semanathe Macarena procession in Seville<\/em><\/p>\n

In April it\u2019s the turn of Spain\u2019s biggest religious festival, Semana Santa<\/a> (Easter Holy Week), which this year is from April 13-20. There will be processions in every city, but the biggest and best (and the most) are in Seville. The atmosphere, with the distinctive brass band music, the elaborate floats, the hooded penitents and all the little rituals, is absolutely unique, but if you\u2019re coming to Seville to see it bear in mind that hotels and apartments can double in price and fill up quickly.<\/p>\n

Other religious festivals include Corpus Christi<\/a> (June 19) and the El Rocio pilgrimage<\/a> (June 4-9). It\u2019s worth being in town for the departure of the pilgrims in their wild-west style covered wagons drawn by oxen.<\/p>\n

\"rocio\"the Seville brotherhood leaving for El Rocio<\/em><\/p>\n

In the meantime it\u2019s the turn of the traditional spring fairs<\/a>. The biggest is Seville\u2019s April Fair<\/a> (which this year, because Easter falls so late, is actually in May, from the 5th to the 11th), which is immediately followed by the Jerez Fair (May 11 to 18), and a little later by the Cordoba Fair (May 24 to 31). Both of these are easily reached by train or car from Seville. Typical of all the fairs are the little marquees, or casetas, where people gather to eat and drink rebujitos, the traditional sherry and 7-Up cocktails, horses and carriages, and fairground rides and fast food stalls. They also coincide with the local bullfighting season<\/a> too. The Seville casetas are mostly private, so if you don\u2019t know anyone who is a member of one the Jerez and Cordoba fairs will be more fun and friendlier. The Malaga Fair<\/a> is a bit later, running from August 16-25, and has more daytime activities away from the Fairground itself, including a re-enactment of the fall of Moorish Malaga to the Christians.<\/p>\n

\"cordobathe Patios of Cordoba<\/em><\/p>\n

Two other festivals that are worth seeing are the Patio Festival, or Festival of the Flowers, in Cordoba (May 8-19), which takes the form of a competition for the best patios and balconies in the city, and the city is full of the colours and scents of the spring flowers, and the Fiesta del Carmen<\/a> in Malaga on July 16, which celebrates the patron saint of fishermen with an unusual water-borne procession.<\/p>\n

Veoapartment has holiday rental apartments in both Seville and Malaga, that make a perfect base for experiencing these fabulous Andalusian festivals. For a complete listing of upcoming events in 2014 check out our city information pages for: Seville<\/a> and Malaga<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andaluc\u00eda is justly famous for its fiestas (a word that means both party and holiday), which cover the full range from the solemn (often passionately so), to the riotous and celebratory, especially in spring. So, if you\u2019re planning a holiday in the South of Spain this year, and are thinking of experiencing one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[299,3,238,259,44,5,59,202,8,9],"tags":[509,313,58,230,507,30,32,314],"class_list":["post-2555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-andalucia-2","category-apartments","category-august-fair","category-cadiz","category-el-rocio","category-feria-de-abril","category-fiestas-2","category-malaga","category-semana-santa","category-seville","tag-cadiz","tag-carnival","tag-cordoba","tag-festivals","tag-malaga","tag-semana-santa-2","tag-seville-2","tag-spring-fairs"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4jUpS-Fd","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2555\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.veoapartment.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}