Routes of the Fairs in Andalucia

The April Fair began as a livestock market. In 1846 two city councillors — Jose Maria Ybarra, from a Basque family, and Narciso Bonaplata, a Catalan — asked the town hall to revive older trading fairs. Queen Isabel II authorised three days in April 1847. The first edition opened on 18 April in the Prado de San Sebastian with 19 marquees. The dancing got in the way of the cattle deals. The dancing won.

Today the fair sits in Los Remedios, on a purpose-built fairground, about two weeks after Easter. When Easter is late the whole week can slip into May. Horses and carriages still use the streets by day. At night the paper lanterns and the lit gateway (the portada) are the picture everyone takes.

Most marquees are private. Look for the public or district tents if you are not invited. Dress is smarter than the beach: many locals wear flamenco dress or a jacket. More: Feria of Seville.

Jerez — Feria del Caballo

Jerez holds the Horse Fair a little after Seville, almost always in May. The fairground is Parque Gonzalez Hontoria, close to the centre. By day the point is the horse: parades, carriage competitions, the Andalusian and Carthusian breeds. By night it is a feria like the others, with sherry instead of manzanilla as the house drink. It is a week of international tourist interest, not a small village fair. More: Feria of Jerez.

Sanlucar — Feria de la Manzanilla

Sanlucar de Barrameda sits on the Guadalquivir opposite Donana. Its fair is named after manzanilla, the local dry sherry. The week is late May in some years and early June in others. The Calzada Duquesa Isabel and the streets around it keep the river in the same frame. That is not a locked “last week of May”, and it is not July. More: Feria of Sanlucar.

May in Cordoba is three separate things. Do not treat them as one fair.

Cruces de Mayo

Neighbourhood groups build large flowered crosses in squares and courtyards. The display usually opens at the end of April and runs a few days into May. It is free and nocturnal. It is the start of the month, not the feria.

The Patios

The Fiesta de los Patios is a UNESCO listing (2012). Private courtyards filled with pots and wells open to the street on a published map, mornings and evenings, for about two weeks in early and mid-May. Entry to the contest patios is free. Queues form on weekends. This is the visit that is unlike any other Andalusian fair.

Feria de Mayo

The Feria de Nuestra Senora de la Salud (Our Lady of Health Fair) is the week of marquees, at El Arenal by the river, after the courtyard visits close. Music, dancing and food — the usual fair shape, with the Mosque-Cathedral in the same city. More: Feria of Cordoba.

Feria del Corpus Christi

Granada’s city fair is not in September and it is not Cascamorras. It is the Corpus Christi Fair, timed from Easter: count sixty days from Easter Monday to reach Corpus Thursday, the religious morning. The fairground week in Almanjayar wraps around that Thursday. The week opens at midnight when the lights on the gateway are switched on. Early in the week a carnival figure called the Tarasca — a kind of dragon, with giants and oversized heads — walks the centre. The Thursday procession is the formal civic-religious morning.

Cascamorras, in Guadix and Baza

On 6 September a man from Guadix, dressed as the Cascamorras, runs into Baza to try to take the statue of the Virgin of Piety. Baza keeps the image. The town covers him in black paint and oil. On 9 September he goes home empty-handed and Guadix does the same to him. It is a festival of international tourist interest, more than five centuries old, and it is not the feria of Granada city. Wear clothes you can throw away if you stand in the street.

Almeria’s August fair honours the Virgen del Mar, the city’s patron. The civic week sits at the end of the month; the last Saturday of August is the religious date people plan around. Concerts and the fairground are the modern half. Come if you are already in Almeria in late August. It is a long drive from the Costa del Sol for a single night of lights. More: Feria of Almeria.

Huelva’s summer week is unusual in Andalucia: it does not honour a patron saint. It marks 3 August 1492, the day Columbus left Palos de la Frontera. The modern festival dates from 1880–1882, not from the eighteenth century. The civic week runs from the last days of July into early August. The 3rd is the historic date inside that week, not a locked opening day.

Palos and La Rabida, a few kilometres away, are the places tied to the voyage and to the Virgin of the Miracles. Huelva city’s own patron is the Virgen de la Cinta, whose pilgrimage sits in September. Seafood is what you eat; the fairground is what you walk.

Malaga’s August fair commemorates the Christian taking of the city on 19 August 1487. That day has to fall inside the official week. There are two geographies, not two different festivals:

• Day fair — the historic centre, roughly midday to early evening: streets, bars, dancing in the squares, heat.
• Night fair — the fairground at Cortijo de Torres, from late afternoon until the small hours. This is where the mechanical rides are, with a programme of concerts and children’s activities that the city reprints every year, plus the marquees, the lit gateway and the fireworks that open the week.

A marquee here works like Seville’s: some public, many private. Local wine and tapas are the food. Bullfights at La Malagueta sit in the same week; they are optional. More: Feria of Malaga.