Last verified: August 27, 2026. Every date here is checked against the organiser or the town hall, not against other calendars, and I mark clearly which 2027 dates are confirmed and which are still expected. I re-check monthly, because 2027 dates firm up through the rest of this year.
Spain festivals in 2027 land in a pattern that hasn’t happened in a decade. Easter falls on 28 March, the earliest since 2016, and it drags the whole moveable calendar back into March with it.
That does something strange. Valencia burns its fallas on Friday 19 March. Seville’s Palm Sunday processions begin on Sunday 21 March. Two days apart.
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In a normal year those festivals sit a month or more from each other and you choose one. In 2027 you can do both, and that’s the single most useful thing on this page. Below is the whole Spain festivals calendar, from this autumn through the end of 2027, with what needs a ticket, what needs a room booked absurdly early, and what you can simply turn up to.
Key Takeaways
- Spain festivals cluster hard in spring 2027: Fallas 15-19 March, Semana Santa 21-28 March, Feria de Abril 13-18 April.
- Easter 2027 is the earliest in ten years, so Valencia’s Cremà and Seville’s Palm Sunday fall two days apart.
- La Tomatina needs a ticket. Entry is capped at 22,000 and the basic ticket costs €15.
- Running at San Fermín is free, needs no registration, and requires you to be 18 or over.
- Cádiz and Tenerife carnivals don’t overlap in 2027. Cádiz runs 4-14 February, Tenerife 19-28 February.
Table of Contents
What Are the Biggest Spain Festivals, and When Are They?
Nine matter most, and seven of them have confirmed dates already. The Spain festivals below run from this September through the end of 2027, and the spring 2027 block is the busiest stretch in years.
| Festival | Where | Dates | Ticket? | Book by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| La Mercè | Barcelona | 23-27 Sep 2026 | No | A month |
| Fiestas del Pilar | Zaragoza | 10-18 Oct 2026 | No | A month |
| Carnaval | Cádiz | 4-14 Feb 2027 | No | 4-6 months |
| Carnaval | Tenerife | 19-28 Feb 2027 | No | 4-6 months |
| Las Fallas | Valencia | 15-19 Mar 2027 | No | 6-9 months |
| Semana Santa | Seville, Málaga and nationwide | 21-28 Mar 2027 | No | 6-9 months |
| Feria de Abril | Seville | 13-18 Apr 2027 | No | 6-9 months |
| San Fermín | Pamplona | 6-14 Jul 2027 | No | 9-12 months |
| La Tomatina | Buñol | Late Aug 2027, expected | Yes, €15 | 3-6 months |
Every date above comes from the organiser or the town hall. Feria from the Ayuntamiento de Sevilla, Carnaval from the Ayuntamiento de Cadiz and the Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Fallas from the Junta Central Fallera. La Merce from Barcelona City Council, and Pilar from spain.info.
Two things jump out of that table. Almost nothing needs a ticket, and almost everything needs a bed booked far earlier than people expect. The scarce resource at Spain festivals is a room, not admission.
The other thing worth noticing: only La Tomatina’s 2027 date is missing. Buñol confirms it each spring, and the pattern points to the last Wednesday of August. I’d pencil it in and confirm before booking anything.
Why Spring 2027 Is the Strangest Calendar in a Decade
Because Easter moves, and in 2027 it moves a long way. Easter Sunday falls on 28 March, making Palm Sunday 21 March and pulling Semana Santa almost entirely into March (Trivial Cofrade, 2026). Las Fallas doesn’t move at all. It runs 15-19 March every year.
So two of the biggest Spain festivals collide. Valencia’s Cremà, when the sculptures burn, falls on 19 March, which in 2027 is also Viernes de Dolores, the Friday that opens the Holy Week season. The Cremà always lands on 19 March, the feast of San José, whatever Easter is doing (Junta Central Fallera, 2026; 7 Televalencia, 2026). Barely a weekend separates the biggest fire festival in Spain from the start of its biggest religious one.
Here’s the itinerary that makes possible. Watch the Cremà in Valencia on the Thursday and Friday, take a train south over the weekend, and be in Seville or Málaga for Palm Sunday. My Valencia travel guide and Seville travel guide cover both cities properly.
Now the warning attached to it. That same compression means accommodation from Valencia through Andalusia is under pressure from mid-March to mid-April 2027. If you’re planning a spring trip and haven’t checked the dates, you may be walking into three surge-priced weeks without knowing it. The cost of a trip to Spain looks very different inside that window.
When Is Semana Santa 2027?
From 21 to 28 March 2027. Palm Sunday is 21 March, Holy Thursday 25 March, Good Friday 26 March and Easter Sunday 28 March (Trivial Cofrade, 2026). That’s the earliest Holy Week in ten years, and it means Semana Santa 2027 barely touches April at all.
One practical detail that most calendars skip. Good Friday is a national public holiday across Spain, but Holy Thursday isn’t automatically one. Each autonomous community decides, so whether shops, banks and museums open on 25 March depends on which region you’re standing in. Those regional calendars for 2027 are being approved through this year, and the consolidated national one lands in the autumn. So check the region you’ll actually be in. A Spain-wide holiday list won’t settle it.
Semana Santa is the one entry in the Spain festivals calendar people most often misfile. It sits in April most years, so “Easter in Spain means April” becomes a habit. In 2027 that habit will cost people their dates. What the processions actually mean, and how to watch them without getting in the way, is a bigger subject than a calendar can hold, and my primer on Semana Santa is publishing soon.
Do You Need Tickets for La Tomatina?
Yes, and this catches people out more than anything else on the calendar. La Tomatina requires a paid ticket, entry is capped at 22,000 people, and the basic ticket costs €15 (El Debate, August 2026). Of all the Spain festivals on this list, it’s the one that quietly stopped being a free-for-all street party.
The cap exists for an obvious reason once you see the numbers. Buñol is a town of roughly 9,000 people, and on the day it admits more than twice its own population into a few narrow streets.
The mechanics are unlike any of the other Spain festivals here. The fight itself runs from 12:00 to 13:00, one hour exactly. Tickets are exchanged for an official wristband on the morning itself from 09:00, and only the wristband gets you into the streets where the fight happens. Merchant packs from around €40 add a cloakroom, a shirt, paella and drinks.
The 2026 edition ran on 26 August. For 2027, expect the last Wednesday of August, which computes to 25 August, but Buñol hasn’t published it yet. Confirm before you book flights around it.
Is Running With the Bulls Free?
Yes. Running at San Fermín costs nothing, requires no registration or ticket, and is open to anyone aged 18 or over (Holidayguru, 2026). That surprises people who assume the most famous of the Spain festivals must be the ticketed one, when the reverse is true.
The festival runs 6-14 July every year, dates that never move. It opens with the Chupinazo rocket at noon on 6 July from the balcony of Pamplona’s town hall. The encierro then runs at 8:00 sharp every morning from 7 to 14 July, when eight fighting bulls and their steers cover the old town’s streets with runners ahead of them.
So what’s actually scarce? A bed. Pamplona is a small city hosting an enormous party, and accommodation is the hardest and most expensive part of San Fermín by a distance. Book close to a year out, or plan to stay 30 to 60 minutes away and travel in. Nobody regrets booking early here.
I’ll say the obvious thing plainly, because a calendar shouldn’t pretend otherwise: the encierro injures people most years, and the bulls are killed later the same day. Whether that’s for you is your call, and the wider question of bullfighting in Spain deserves more room than this page can give it.
When Is Carnival in Spain?
Twice, effectively, and the two biggest don’t overlap. Carnaval de Cádiz runs 4-14 February 2027, while Tenerife’s street carnival runs 19-28 February (Ayuntamiento de Cádiz, 2026). Nearly a week separates them, which means you could attend both.
Among Spain festivals, Cádiz does something unusual with the church calendar. Ash Wednesday falls on 10 February 2027, which ought to end carnival, and Cádiz simply keeps going into a second weekend, closing on 14 February with the burning of the Bruja Piti. It even adds a Carnaval Chiquito on 21 February. Within the main run, the COAC final is on 5 February, the pregón on 6 February, the big parade on 7 February, and the Lunes de Coros on 8 February is a local holiday.
Tenerife sets its own schedule too. Its Martes de Carnaval, the Coso Apoteósico, lands on 23 February 2027 and is a local holiday in Santa Cruz. The full programme runs from 22 January to 28 February (Ayuntamiento de Santa Cruz de Tenerife, June 2026). The council moved it about two weeks off the liturgical date for logistical reasons. If you’ve read that carnival in Spain is “the week before Lent”, that’s true almost nowhere on this list.
Which Spain Festivals Need Booking a Year Out?
The ones where a small place absorbs a very large crowd. Pamplona for San Fermín is the hardest booking in Spain, followed by Valencia during Fallas and Seville across both Semana Santa and Feria. None needs a ticket. All need a room months before you’d think.
The lead times below are my own estimates from watching these Spain festivals fill up, not published guidance. Treat them as a floor rather than a rule.
| Festival | Ticket needed | Book accommodation | Nearby base workable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| San Fermín, Pamplona | No | 9-12 months | Yes, 30-60 min away |
| Las Fallas, Valencia | No | 6-9 months | Partly |
| Semana Santa, Seville | No | 6-9 months | Yes, Andalusian cities |
| Feria de Abril, Seville | No | 6-9 months | Yes |
| Carnaval, Cádiz | No | 4-6 months | Yes, Jerez or El Puerto |
| La Tomatina, Buñol | Yes, €15 | 3-6 months | Yes, Valencia city |
| La Mercè, Barcelona | No | 1-2 months | Not needed |
The pattern across Spain festivals is consistent. Big-city ones like La Mercè absorb crowds easily, because Barcelona has the beds. Small-town festivals don’t, and that’s where lead time decides whether you go at all. My Barcelona travel guide covers the city’s own September festival in more detail.
What Is on in Autumn and Winter?
Two big street festivals, one flamenco season, then a quiet stretch. La Mercè, Barcelona’s festa major, runs 23-27 September 2026, with Shanghai as guest city for the 25th anniversary of the two cities’ partnership (Barcelona City Council, 2026). It’s free, enormous, and needs nothing but a hotel room.
Zaragoza’s Fiestas del Pilar follow from 10 to 18 October 2026, built around 12 October, the feast of the Virgen del Pilar, when the Ofrenda de Flores fills the Plaza del Pilar from early morning (spain.info, 2026). After that the calendar thins out until Christmas, when 5 and 6 January bring the Reyes Magos parades. Those are the most local, least touristed Spain festivals of the year, and worth catching if you’re already there.
The flamenco season is Seville’s Bienal de Flamenco, 9 September to 3 October 2026: 72 performances across eleven venues, tickets €12 to €75, and it only comes around every two years (labienal.com). My guide to the best flamenco shows in Seville and Madrid covers how the festival changes which show to book while it runs.
Autumn is also simply a good time to travel here. My region-by-region guide to when to visit Spain covers how the weather and the crowds move month by month.
Five Mistakes People Make Planning Around Spain Festivals
Most trouble with Spain festivals comes from dates rather than tickets. These are the five I see repeatedly.
1. Assuming Semana Santa is in April. In 2027 it runs 21-28 March, and April barely features. 2. Treating carnival as one national event. Cádiz and Tenerife are three weeks and one ocean apart. 3. Turning up to La Tomatina without a ticket. The cap is 22,000 and the wristband is checked. 4. Booking Pamplona in spring for a July festival. That’s already months too late. 5. Planning a spring 2027 trip through Valencia and Andalusia without checking the mid-March to mid-April overlap.
Frequently Asked Questions
When is Semana Santa 2027?
Semana Santa 2027 runs from 21 to 28 March. Palm Sunday is 21 March, Holy Thursday 25 March, Good Friday 26 March and Easter Sunday 28 March. It’s the earliest Holy Week in ten years, which reshuffles the spring Spain festivals calendar. Good Friday is a national holiday, while Holy Thursday depends on the autonomous community you’re in.
Do you need a ticket for La Tomatina?
Yes. Entry is capped at 22,000 people and the basic ticket costs €15, a municipal fee charged to control the crowd (El Debate, 2026). Tickets are swapped for a wristband on the morning from 09:00, and only the wristband admits you to the streets.
Is running with the bulls free?
Yes. Running at San Fermín in Pamplona costs nothing and needs no registration, though you must be 18 or over. One of the few Spain festivals with dates that never move, it runs 6-14 July annually, with the encierro at 8:00 each morning from 7 July. Accommodation, not access, is the expensive part.
When is carnival in Spain in 2027?
The two big carnival Spain festivals don’t coincide. Carnaval de Cádiz runs 4-14 February 2027, and Tenerife’s street carnival runs 19-28 February, with its Martes de Carnaval on 23 February. Ash Wednesday falls on 10 February, but Cádiz continues past it and closes on 14 February.
What is the biggest festival in Spain?
It depends on the measure. San Fermín draws the largest international audience, Semana Santa is the biggest by geographic reach since nearly every Spanish city marks it, and Las Fallas is the largest single-city spectacle. Among Spain festivals, no one event wins on every count.
Get the Moveable Feast Right First
Fix Easter, and the rest of the Spain festivals year falls into place. Semana Santa sets Feria de Abril and carnival, and once those are pinned the fixed festivals like Fallas and San Fermín slot around them. Work in that order and you won’t be surprised.
For 2027 specifically, the surprise is already known: an unusually early Easter puts Valencia’s fire festival and Seville’s Holy Week within a weekend of each other. That’s an opportunity if you book now and a problem if you find out in February.
Every date in this Spain festivals calendar comes from the organiser or the town hall and gets re-checked monthly, which is why this page carries a verification date at the top. If you’re still deciding when to come, my region-by-region month guide weighs weather against crowds, and my roundup of the best things to do in Spain sorts every experience by how far ahead its door closes.
