From the surrealist melting watches of Salvador Dalí, famous Hispanic artists have used their rich imaginations to capture the world’s collective eye. Legendary painters such as cubist Pablo Picasso, self-portrait master and feminist icon Frida Kahlo and revolutionary muralist Diego Rivera, made strong political and personal statements with their work that both defied definition and created new ones. Learn more about these renowned Hispanic painters, sculptors and illustrators, from their early days, to their struggle for acceptance in the art world, to their arrival at legendary status and more.
Spanish painters
Sculptures and paintings in Spain represent some of the most valued artistic expressions in the art world. Some of the world's most renowned artists are Spanish painters and Spanish sculptors have also left their mark on society. In fact, Spain has such a strong artistic tradition that Spanish art has become a leading attraction for tourism.
Some famous Spanish sculptors include Mariano Benlliure, Vasco de la Zarza, Juan Bautista Monegro, Alonso Berruguete and many more.
The origins of painting in Spain can be traced back to illuminate manuscripts and mural decorations. During the 16th and 17th centuries, considered Spain's Golden Age, many famous Spanish painters emerged including artists like Diego Velazquez, El Greco, Francisco Ribera and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo while Francisco de Goya dominated Spanish painting in the 18th century.
Some of the most famous Spanish painters of the 20th century include Joan Miro, Juan Gris, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. Picasso is considered to be the most innovative Spanish artists of the 20th century with famous masterpieces such as his Guernica painting. Picasso's work along with those of other famous Spanish painters are highly regarded and valued by important art galleries around the world.
Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) by Diego Velazquez, is one of the most important and most viewed Spanish paintings in the world.
There are many more important Spanish painters and Spanish sculptors that have left an impressive legacy in the art world. In this section, we hope that you can find more about Spanish artists and sculptors and learn about them.
Related articles
Los Festivales de España
Las Fallas de Valencia is undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain. What started as a feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, has evolved into a 5-day, multifaceted celebration involving fire. Valencia, a quiet city with a population of just over 1 million, swells to an estimated three million flame-loving revelers during Las Fallas celebrations.
Las Fallas literally means "the fires" in Valencian. The focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots (“puppets” or “dolls”), which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues. The ninots are extremely life like and usually depict satirical scenes and current events. A popular theme is poking fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities. The labor intensive ninots, often costing up to US$75,000, are crafted by neighborhood organizations and take almost the entire year to construct. Many ninots are several stories tall and need to be moved into their final location of over 350 key intersections and parks around the city with the aid of cranes on the day of la plantà (the rising).
The ninots remain in place until March 19th, the day known as La Cremá (the burning). Starting in the early evening, young men with axes chop cleverly-hidden holes in the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly 12 a.m. (midnight). Over the years, the local bomberos (firemen) have devised unique ways to protect the town's buildings from being accidentally set on fire by the ninots: such as neatly covering storefronts with fireproof tarps. Each year, one of the ninots is spared from destruction by popular vote. This ninot is called the ninot indultat (the pardoned puppet) and is exhibited in the local Museum of the Ninotalong with the other favorites from years past.
The origin of las Fallas is a bit murky, but most credit the fires as an evolution of pagan rituals that celebrated the onset of spring and the planting season. In the sixteenth century, Valencia used streetlights only during the longer nights of winter. The street lamps were hung on wooden structures, called parots, and as the days became longer the now-unneeded parots were ceremoniously burned on St. Joseph's Day. Even today the fiesta has retained its satirical and working-class roots, and the well-to-do and faint-of-heart of Valencia often ditch out of town during Las Fallas.
Besides the burning of the ninots, there is a myriad of other activities during the fiesta. During the day, you can enjoy an extensive roster of bullfights, parades, paella contests and beauty pageants around the city. Spontaneous fireworks displays explode everywhere during the days leading up to La Crema, but the highlight is the daily mascletá which occurs in the Plaza Ayuntamiento at exactly 2pm. When the string-lined firecrackers are ignited, the thunderous, rythmitic sounds they make can be considered music as the sound intensifies in volume. Those firecrackers timed to fall to the ground literally shake the floor for next ten minutes, as the mascletá is more for auditive enjoyment than visual.
Another pyrotechnic cremá takes place in June throughout many towns in Spain. The most famous one is in the city of Alicante, as it celebrates Hogueras de San Juan, "The Bonfires of Saint John."
La Tomatina
The sunny Mediterranean city of Valencia in Spain is known around the world for its tasty and succulent oranges. And just thirty miles away is Buñol, another town just as famous for its produce. But its notoriety comes from the locals' habit of wearing the produce as well as eating it—big time. Every year, Buñol hosts La Tomatina, the world's largest food fight. Well connected by motorway and rail to Madrid and Valencia, this charming town erupts into a fiery blaze of tomato-hurling on the last Wednesday of every August. The batalla takes place during a week-long celebration filled with non-stop festivities and the ever present anticipation of the monstrous tomato battle that serves as the culmination of the week's events.
The Tomatina started during the annual town festival in hour of their patrons San Luis Bertran and the Our Lady of the Forsaken. One parade that takes place during the townfiesta is the parade of the giant heads. As just so happened one year back in the 1940’s some youngsters wanted to participate in this parade but the participants didn’t let them join. In a moment of youthful impulse the kids barged into the parade knocking down one of the participants. When this person got back on his feet, furious with what had occurred, he went to the nearest stall and grabbed the first thing he could find—some tomatoes. I think you can imagine the rest. From that moment on, this festival has grown in popularity year after year.
During the week leading up to this epic battle, the 9000 inhabitants of Buñol watch as their town doubles in size. A whole week of parades, fireworks, food and street parties make this town the center of attention in Spain. The night before La Tomatina, the narrow streets beneath the town's medieval bell tower begin to fill with the smell of tomatoes. You will find giant pans of delectable paella simmering, as is tradition, over wood-burning fires each one trying to win the paella contest. After the contest, wine flows and more food is eaten all over the small town until the early hours of the morning.
Then, early Wednesday morning, shopkeepers and business owners along the Plaza Mayorof the town set about covering windows and doors in preparation for the upcoming street brawl. Large trucks rumble up the cobblestone streets and arrive in the crowd-filled square ready to unload their haul of tomatoes for the crowd to use. Like many parties, this one doesn’t begin until the sound of an exploding bottle rocket lets the crowd know it is time to start throwing. On the back of the trucks there are townspeople unloading the tomatoes and pelting the crowd with some of the 120 tons of sloppy, squishy tomatoes trucked in from Chilches in Castellon.
Dressed in clothing doomed for the recycling bin, more than 20,000 revelers find the nearest target to hit or anything else that strays within range of their hand-crushed veggie blobs. Soon the streets are awash in seeds, pulp and tomato guts that will shortly leave the cobblestoned streets spotless—thanks to the acidity of the tomatoes—after being hosed down with water. This insanity ensues for exactly one hour until it ends the same way it began—with the sound of a rocket.
La Tomatina - Factoids
The Running of the Bulls
The festival of San Fermin, or the Running of the Bulls as it’s more commonly known outside Spain, officially begins at midday on 6th July every year with the ‘Chupinazo’ which takes place on the balcony of the Casa Consistorial in Pamplona. Thousands of people congregate in the square awaiting the mayor’s official announcement that the fiestas have begun, a rocket is launched and the partying begins.
History of the Running of the Bulls. The history of the bull running in Pamplona is not clear. There is evidence of the festival from as far back as the 13th century when it seems the events took place in October as this coincided with the festival of San Fermin on October 10th. It seems that the modern day celebration has evolved from this as well as individual commercial and bullfighting fiestas which can be traced back to the 14th century.
Over many years the mainly religious festival of San Fermin was diluted by music, dancing, bullfights and markets such that the Pamplona Council proposed that the whole event be moved to July 7th when the weather is far more conducive to such a celebration. To this day San Fermin remains a fixed date every year with the first bull run at 8am on July 7th and the last at the same time on July 14th.
The joining together of the religious, commercial and bullfighting festivals and the move to July 7th led to the first official celebration of San Fermines in 1591. This inaugural fiesta was a low key affair in comparison to the modern day running of the bulls as it only lasted two days although there was much merriment involving music, a procession and a bullfight. Dancing and fireworks became features of the festival over the next few years and the event was extended to July 10th.
The first evidence of foreigners turning up in Pamplona for San Fermin are recorded in chronicles from the 17th and 18th centuries when reference is made to the local clergy being concerned about “the abuse of drink and the permisiveness of young men and women”. By now there was plenty music, dancing, drinking, street theatre and bull running as the religious focus of the occasion took a back seat. By the 19th century all kinds of fairground attractions were making their way to Pamplona including human cannonballs and circus animals. The actual route of the bull run didn’t have a double security wall as is the case today so the bulls were able to escape, creating chaos in the streets of Pamplona.
It was thanks to the writing of American writer Ernest Hemingway that San Fermin developed the notoriety of today. The publication of his novel “The Sun Also Rises” in 1926 told the world about the Pamplona bull running festival which attracted people from all over the world to this annual festival. Such is the popularity of the event that overcrowding is a serious problem and if you’re planning on staying there then you should book accommodation many months in advance.
The Bull Run – El Encierro The Pamplona bull run takes place at 8am every morning from 7th to 14th July (eight runs in total). Runners must be in the running area by 7:30am. The actual run stretches from the corral at Santo Domingo where the bulls are kept to the bullring where they will fight that same afternoon. The length of the run is 825 metres and the average time of the run from start to finish is about three minutes. The streets through the old town which make up the bull run are walled off so the bulls can’t escape. Each day six fighting bulls run the route as well as two herds of bullocks.
The tension builds as the release of the bulls approaches and at 8am on the dot a rocket is fired to confirm that the gate has been opened at the Santo Domingo corral. Runners dressed in white with a red hankerchief around their necks pray to San Fermin then a second rocket announces that the bulls have left. The bulls and the runners then proceed along the route.
A third rocket is set off once all the bulls have entered the bullring and the fourth, and final, rocket means that the bulls are now in the bullpen and the bullrun has finished. The vast number of people taking part in the bullrun nowadays adds to the already considerable danger of running alongside wild bulls weighing in the region of 700kg each.
There are plenty security guards and first aid personnel but there is little they can do during the running of the bulls such that 15 people have died and over 200 been seriously injured since 1924.
Watching the Bullfights-On every evening of the fiesta beginning at 6:30pm on 7th July there is a bullfight in the Pamplona bullring. Tickets for the bullfights are sold out well in advance as the arena only holds 12,500 people. Every evening after the day’s bullfight some tickets go on sale for the next evening’s event at the ‘taquillas’ at the bull ring. You’ll usually find ticket touts operating around the Plaza de Toros during the day and before the bullfight selling at elevated prices.
La Tamborrada
Drum roll, por favor! Take your ear plugs to San Sebastian in January, because it’s time once again for the distinct and deafening La Tamborrada. Prepare yourself to see and hear how this sleepy resort town comes alive with the sound of thousands of beating drums and small barrels, all day and all night.
Spain is known for hosting some exceptionally wild parties, but nothing can prepare you for the high-decibel madness of La Tamborrada. It's a short but intense festival and it works like this: from midnight to midnight, the various drum corps that exist in San Sebastian march through the streets of this coastal town. Perfectly uniformed, these groups stroll through the town playing their drums and barrels in honor of the patron saint of Donostia (then name of the city in the Basque language).
The party begins at midnight on January 19th in the Plaza de la Constitution with the ceremonial raising of the flag. Once this occurs, the different groups begin their march through streets and neighborhoods of the Old City—something that doesn’t stop for the next 24 hours. At the break of dawn the drummers take a little break to have a light breakfast of cognac and churros.
The different drum corps that parade through the town represent San Sebastian tradition that’s still fiercely defended to this day: the gastronomic societies that San Sebastian calls home. Because of the pride and rivalry these culinary “gangs” exhibit, the competition can get heated but always remains good natured.
Like many Spanish traditions, the origin of La Tamborrada is not entirely known. The typical story goes like this: around 1720 a baker was filling water barrels from a fountain near the Church of San Vicente. While filling the barrels a group of young girls passing by started banging on his barrels as though they were drumming with the intention to entertain and accompany the baker. Shortly thereafter, a crowd started to gather and from there, this impromptu jam session evolved into the spectacle you see today.
Some years later the composer, Raimundo Sarriegui, composed the "March of San Sebastian". This piece is a series of drum compositions that are played every year during La Tamborrada. At one point, the townspeople suggested adding lyrics to the composition, but Sarriegui refused arguing that there was no way to improve the sound of the drums and barrels.
Seville April Fair
Seville’s and Spain’s biggest annual party, La Feria de Abril, takes place two weeks after Easter on a purpose built showground on the banks of the city’s Guadalquivir River.
Moros y Cristianos
Mock battles between Moors and Christians take place in the Valencia region of Spain to celebrate the ‘Reconquest’ of Spain from the Moors. The biggest of these festivals is in Alcoy (Alicante) on 22-24th April.
Semana Grande Bilbao
The festival of Semana Grande is known as ‘Aste Nagusia’ in Bilbao. It is celebrated in mid-August in Bilbao and is the biggest annual fiesta held in Northern Spain. It consists of great musical events, huge street parties and traditional Basque cultural activities.
Spanish painters
Sculptures and paintings in Spain represent some of the most valued artistic expressions in the art world. Some of the world's most renowned artists are Spanish painters and Spanish sculptors have also left their mark on society. In fact, Spain has such a strong artistic tradition that Spanish art has become a leading attraction for tourism.
Some famous Spanish sculptors include Mariano Benlliure, Vasco de la Zarza, Juan Bautista Monegro, Alonso Berruguete and many more.
The origins of painting in Spain can be traced back to illuminate manuscripts and mural decorations. During the 16th and 17th centuries, considered Spain's Golden Age, many famous Spanish painters emerged including artists like Diego Velazquez, El Greco, Francisco Ribera and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo while Francisco de Goya dominated Spanish painting in the 18th century.
Some of the most famous Spanish painters of the 20th century include Joan Miro, Juan Gris, Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso. Picasso is considered to be the most innovative Spanish artists of the 20th century with famous masterpieces such as his Guernica painting. Picasso's work along with those of other famous Spanish painters are highly regarded and valued by important art galleries around the world.
Las Meninas (The Maids of Honor) by Diego Velazquez, is one of the most important and most viewed Spanish paintings in the world.
There are many more important Spanish painters and Spanish sculptors that have left an impressive legacy in the art world. In this section, we hope that you can find more about Spanish artists and sculptors and learn about them.
Related articles
Los Festivales de España
Las Fallas de Valencia is undoubtedly one of the most unique and crazy festivals in Spain. What started as a feast day for St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, has evolved into a 5-day, multifaceted celebration involving fire. Valencia, a quiet city with a population of just over 1 million, swells to an estimated three million flame-loving revelers during Las Fallas celebrations.
Las Fallas literally means "the fires" in Valencian. The focus of the fiesta is the creation and destruction of ninots (“puppets” or “dolls”), which are huge cardboard, wood, paper-machè and plaster statues. The ninots are extremely life like and usually depict satirical scenes and current events. A popular theme is poking fun at corrupt politicians and Spanish celebrities. The labor intensive ninots, often costing up to US$75,000, are crafted by neighborhood organizations and take almost the entire year to construct. Many ninots are several stories tall and need to be moved into their final location of over 350 key intersections and parks around the city with the aid of cranes on the day of la plantà (the rising).
The ninots remain in place until March 19th, the day known as La Cremá (the burning). Starting in the early evening, young men with axes chop cleverly-hidden holes in the statues and stuff them with fireworks. The crowds start to chant, the streetlights are turned off, and all of the ninots are set on fire at exactly 12 a.m. (midnight). Over the years, the local bomberos (firemen) have devised unique ways to protect the town's buildings from being accidentally set on fire by the ninots: such as neatly covering storefronts with fireproof tarps. Each year, one of the ninots is spared from destruction by popular vote. This ninot is called the ninot indultat (the pardoned puppet) and is exhibited in the local Museum of the Ninotalong with the other favorites from years past.
The origin of las Fallas is a bit murky, but most credit the fires as an evolution of pagan rituals that celebrated the onset of spring and the planting season. In the sixteenth century, Valencia used streetlights only during the longer nights of winter. The street lamps were hung on wooden structures, called parots, and as the days became longer the now-unneeded parots were ceremoniously burned on St. Joseph's Day. Even today the fiesta has retained its satirical and working-class roots, and the well-to-do and faint-of-heart of Valencia often ditch out of town during Las Fallas.
Besides the burning of the ninots, there is a myriad of other activities during the fiesta. During the day, you can enjoy an extensive roster of bullfights, parades, paella contests and beauty pageants around the city. Spontaneous fireworks displays explode everywhere during the days leading up to La Crema, but the highlight is the daily mascletá which occurs in the Plaza Ayuntamiento at exactly 2pm. When the string-lined firecrackers are ignited, the thunderous, rythmitic sounds they make can be considered music as the sound intensifies in volume. Those firecrackers timed to fall to the ground literally shake the floor for next ten minutes, as the mascletá is more for auditive enjoyment than visual.
Another pyrotechnic cremá takes place in June throughout many towns in Spain. The most famous one is in the city of Alicante, as it celebrates Hogueras de San Juan, "The Bonfires of Saint John."
La Tomatina
The sunny Mediterranean city of Valencia in Spain is known around the world for its tasty and succulent oranges. And just thirty miles away is Buñol, another town just as famous for its produce. But its notoriety comes from the locals' habit of wearing the produce as well as eating it—big time. Every year, Buñol hosts La Tomatina, the world's largest food fight. Well connected by motorway and rail to Madrid and Valencia, this charming town erupts into a fiery blaze of tomato-hurling on the last Wednesday of every August. The batalla takes place during a week-long celebration filled with non-stop festivities and the ever present anticipation of the monstrous tomato battle that serves as the culmination of the week's events.
The Tomatina started during the annual town festival in hour of their patrons San Luis Bertran and the Our Lady of the Forsaken. One parade that takes place during the townfiesta is the parade of the giant heads. As just so happened one year back in the 1940’s some youngsters wanted to participate in this parade but the participants didn’t let them join. In a moment of youthful impulse the kids barged into the parade knocking down one of the participants. When this person got back on his feet, furious with what had occurred, he went to the nearest stall and grabbed the first thing he could find—some tomatoes. I think you can imagine the rest. From that moment on, this festival has grown in popularity year after year.
During the week leading up to this epic battle, the 9000 inhabitants of Buñol watch as their town doubles in size. A whole week of parades, fireworks, food and street parties make this town the center of attention in Spain. The night before La Tomatina, the narrow streets beneath the town's medieval bell tower begin to fill with the smell of tomatoes. You will find giant pans of delectable paella simmering, as is tradition, over wood-burning fires each one trying to win the paella contest. After the contest, wine flows and more food is eaten all over the small town until the early hours of the morning.
Then, early Wednesday morning, shopkeepers and business owners along the Plaza Mayorof the town set about covering windows and doors in preparation for the upcoming street brawl. Large trucks rumble up the cobblestone streets and arrive in the crowd-filled square ready to unload their haul of tomatoes for the crowd to use. Like many parties, this one doesn’t begin until the sound of an exploding bottle rocket lets the crowd know it is time to start throwing. On the back of the trucks there are townspeople unloading the tomatoes and pelting the crowd with some of the 120 tons of sloppy, squishy tomatoes trucked in from Chilches in Castellon.
Dressed in clothing doomed for the recycling bin, more than 20,000 revelers find the nearest target to hit or anything else that strays within range of their hand-crushed veggie blobs. Soon the streets are awash in seeds, pulp and tomato guts that will shortly leave the cobblestoned streets spotless—thanks to the acidity of the tomatoes—after being hosed down with water. This insanity ensues for exactly one hour until it ends the same way it began—with the sound of a rocket.
La Tomatina - Factoids
- Celebrated on the last Wednesday of the month of August.
- There is no political or religious significance to La Tomatina, it's just good, messy fun.
- Participants who show up from around the world: 20,000.
- Number of tomatoes used: over 120,000 pounds of tomatoes!
- After the battle, you can hose off the splatter on the riverbank, where the town slaps together makeshift public showers.
- Every year, the fight is nationally televised by the most prestigious agencies in Spain.
- Surprisingly only 8% of the participants Spanish. The countries with most participants are: Australia, Japan, United Kingdom and USA
The Running of the Bulls
The festival of San Fermin, or the Running of the Bulls as it’s more commonly known outside Spain, officially begins at midday on 6th July every year with the ‘Chupinazo’ which takes place on the balcony of the Casa Consistorial in Pamplona. Thousands of people congregate in the square awaiting the mayor’s official announcement that the fiestas have begun, a rocket is launched and the partying begins.
History of the Running of the Bulls. The history of the bull running in Pamplona is not clear. There is evidence of the festival from as far back as the 13th century when it seems the events took place in October as this coincided with the festival of San Fermin on October 10th. It seems that the modern day celebration has evolved from this as well as individual commercial and bullfighting fiestas which can be traced back to the 14th century.
Over many years the mainly religious festival of San Fermin was diluted by music, dancing, bullfights and markets such that the Pamplona Council proposed that the whole event be moved to July 7th when the weather is far more conducive to such a celebration. To this day San Fermin remains a fixed date every year with the first bull run at 8am on July 7th and the last at the same time on July 14th.
The joining together of the religious, commercial and bullfighting festivals and the move to July 7th led to the first official celebration of San Fermines in 1591. This inaugural fiesta was a low key affair in comparison to the modern day running of the bulls as it only lasted two days although there was much merriment involving music, a procession and a bullfight. Dancing and fireworks became features of the festival over the next few years and the event was extended to July 10th.
The first evidence of foreigners turning up in Pamplona for San Fermin are recorded in chronicles from the 17th and 18th centuries when reference is made to the local clergy being concerned about “the abuse of drink and the permisiveness of young men and women”. By now there was plenty music, dancing, drinking, street theatre and bull running as the religious focus of the occasion took a back seat. By the 19th century all kinds of fairground attractions were making their way to Pamplona including human cannonballs and circus animals. The actual route of the bull run didn’t have a double security wall as is the case today so the bulls were able to escape, creating chaos in the streets of Pamplona.
It was thanks to the writing of American writer Ernest Hemingway that San Fermin developed the notoriety of today. The publication of his novel “The Sun Also Rises” in 1926 told the world about the Pamplona bull running festival which attracted people from all over the world to this annual festival. Such is the popularity of the event that overcrowding is a serious problem and if you’re planning on staying there then you should book accommodation many months in advance.
The Bull Run – El Encierro The Pamplona bull run takes place at 8am every morning from 7th to 14th July (eight runs in total). Runners must be in the running area by 7:30am. The actual run stretches from the corral at Santo Domingo where the bulls are kept to the bullring where they will fight that same afternoon. The length of the run is 825 metres and the average time of the run from start to finish is about three minutes. The streets through the old town which make up the bull run are walled off so the bulls can’t escape. Each day six fighting bulls run the route as well as two herds of bullocks.
The tension builds as the release of the bulls approaches and at 8am on the dot a rocket is fired to confirm that the gate has been opened at the Santo Domingo corral. Runners dressed in white with a red hankerchief around their necks pray to San Fermin then a second rocket announces that the bulls have left. The bulls and the runners then proceed along the route.
A third rocket is set off once all the bulls have entered the bullring and the fourth, and final, rocket means that the bulls are now in the bullpen and the bullrun has finished. The vast number of people taking part in the bullrun nowadays adds to the already considerable danger of running alongside wild bulls weighing in the region of 700kg each.
There are plenty security guards and first aid personnel but there is little they can do during the running of the bulls such that 15 people have died and over 200 been seriously injured since 1924.
Watching the Bullfights-On every evening of the fiesta beginning at 6:30pm on 7th July there is a bullfight in the Pamplona bullring. Tickets for the bullfights are sold out well in advance as the arena only holds 12,500 people. Every evening after the day’s bullfight some tickets go on sale for the next evening’s event at the ‘taquillas’ at the bull ring. You’ll usually find ticket touts operating around the Plaza de Toros during the day and before the bullfight selling at elevated prices.
La Tamborrada
Drum roll, por favor! Take your ear plugs to San Sebastian in January, because it’s time once again for the distinct and deafening La Tamborrada. Prepare yourself to see and hear how this sleepy resort town comes alive with the sound of thousands of beating drums and small barrels, all day and all night.
Spain is known for hosting some exceptionally wild parties, but nothing can prepare you for the high-decibel madness of La Tamborrada. It's a short but intense festival and it works like this: from midnight to midnight, the various drum corps that exist in San Sebastian march through the streets of this coastal town. Perfectly uniformed, these groups stroll through the town playing their drums and barrels in honor of the patron saint of Donostia (then name of the city in the Basque language).
The party begins at midnight on January 19th in the Plaza de la Constitution with the ceremonial raising of the flag. Once this occurs, the different groups begin their march through streets and neighborhoods of the Old City—something that doesn’t stop for the next 24 hours. At the break of dawn the drummers take a little break to have a light breakfast of cognac and churros.
The different drum corps that parade through the town represent San Sebastian tradition that’s still fiercely defended to this day: the gastronomic societies that San Sebastian calls home. Because of the pride and rivalry these culinary “gangs” exhibit, the competition can get heated but always remains good natured.
Like many Spanish traditions, the origin of La Tamborrada is not entirely known. The typical story goes like this: around 1720 a baker was filling water barrels from a fountain near the Church of San Vicente. While filling the barrels a group of young girls passing by started banging on his barrels as though they were drumming with the intention to entertain and accompany the baker. Shortly thereafter, a crowd started to gather and from there, this impromptu jam session evolved into the spectacle you see today.
Some years later the composer, Raimundo Sarriegui, composed the "March of San Sebastian". This piece is a series of drum compositions that are played every year during La Tamborrada. At one point, the townspeople suggested adding lyrics to the composition, but Sarriegui refused arguing that there was no way to improve the sound of the drums and barrels.
Seville April Fair
Seville’s and Spain’s biggest annual party, La Feria de Abril, takes place two weeks after Easter on a purpose built showground on the banks of the city’s Guadalquivir River.
Moros y Cristianos
Mock battles between Moors and Christians take place in the Valencia region of Spain to celebrate the ‘Reconquest’ of Spain from the Moors. The biggest of these festivals is in Alcoy (Alicante) on 22-24th April.
Semana Grande Bilbao
The festival of Semana Grande is known as ‘Aste Nagusia’ in Bilbao. It is celebrated in mid-August in Bilbao and is the biggest annual fiesta held in Northern Spain. It consists of great musical events, huge street parties and traditional Basque cultural activities.