Málaga loves festivals and outdoor life. Here are the year's highlights.
The Feria de Málaga
The August Feria commemorates the Catholic Monarchs' entry into the city on 19 August 1487 and lasts about a week in mid-August. It takes place in two settings:
- the daytime fair in the centre, when calle Larios and the central streets fill with music, sevillanas, verdiales and people drinking sweet Málaga wine, cartojal;
- the Real del Cortijo de Torres, by evening and night, a fairground with casetas, rides and concerts, where people dance till dawn.
It opens with a big fireworks display on La Malagueta beach. Many women wear flamenco dresses and carriages and horses parade as at Seville's April Fair.
Holy Week
Málaga's Holy Week is famous for its thrones, huge processional floats carried by hundreds of hombres de trono, its bands and the Cristo de la Buena Muerte, carried on Maundy Thursday by the Spanish Legion, which lands at the port and marches singing its anthem El novio de la muerte. On Holy Wednesday the brotherhood of Padre Jesús "El Rico" frees a prisoner, under an ancient privilege confirmed by the Spanish government (see Holy Week).
The Málaga Festival
In March or April the Málaga Festival is held, the main festival of Spanish-language cinema, with the Golden Biznaga award, premieres and stars on the red carpet at the Teatro Cervantes (see Spanish cinema).
Summer and autumn
- St John's night (23 June), with bonfires and midnight swims on the beaches.
- The Virgen del Carmen (16 July), with sea processions by the fishermen of El Perchel and El Palo.
- The Fiesta Mayor de Verdiales (28 December), with pandas playing the traditional music of the Málaga hills, one of Andalusia's oldest.
Christmas
The switching-on of the calle Larios Christmas lights, with light and music shows, has become an event followed across Spain, and the city fills with markets and nativity scenes (see Christmas in Spain).