Preparing for your Camino next year? Festivals in Spain and Portugal.

[JohnnieWalker]

Preparing for your Camino next year? Festivals in Spain and Portugal.

There are many! Some are described in this article:

http://johnniewalker-santiago.blogspot.com.es/2017/11/preparing-for-your-camino-next-year.html

What's your favourite?

 

[Dorpie]

Fantastically useful post Johnnie. Very nearly got caught out by San Fermin this year and only a post on this forum saved me from very expensive accommodation.

 

[Sailor]

Thanks! La Tomatina sounds like fun time. To all caminantes, que la luz de Dios alumbre su camino.

 

[nycwalking]

In 2001, on very first camino I happened to stay in Los Arcos during their running of the bulls fiesta. Nice!
I like the baby jumping and the coffin bit.
Thanks for post.

 

[naplesdon]

Late last June I was in Burgos during the Fete to San Juan, it is a heady, noisy event with fireworks at midnight and as many broken bottles in the streets at 6am as one finds during San Fermin in Pamplona. I've also done the wine festival in Viana during the middle of June, it is a lot of fun and features great local wines. There are many villages along the way that feature bull runs and fights, Sahagun and Puenta la Reina are two that come to mind, the one in Puenta la Reina features traditional costumes and dancing and the folks who live along the main road through town on the Camino set up shop behind the barricades with family picnics and feast. Astorga has a festival in June that makes it almost impossible to walk on the Camino, if you are trying to find shells and waymarkings. I ran into a festival for San Juan in Najera last year which was attended mainly by young people in a "coming of age event," the downside of this event was most of the roads were closed and I was riding a bike. Bottom line you can find some sort of local festival on just about any weekend during the summer in Spain.

 

[Rick of Rick and Peg]

In Sahagún, near the halfway mark of the Camino Francés, there are festivities around June 12th to honor San Juan de Sahagún. There are a few days with runnings of the bulls.

 

[HedaP]

Can Semana Santa be called a festival? If not then the medieval fair in Burgos because it was just so right in that location.

 

[jmcarp]

Great info, John. I'd only add a note to those of us in North America regarding the Sardine Festival--the sardines in Spain and Portugal are real fish, not the oily little minnows in a flat can that you buy here. Festival aside, they're found on nearly every menu in Portugal, and are very tasty when hot off the grill.

 

[jefferyonthecamino]

my favourite (Camino-related) is San Caralampio (fiesta of the drunks) in Melide on the 2nd sunday of september - the locals drink red wine all day, starting early morn.

 

[HedaP]

Great info, John. I'd only add a note to those of us in North America regarding the Sardine Festival--the sardines in Spain and Portugal are real fish, not the oily little minnows in a flat can that you buy here. Festival aside, they're found on nearly every menu in Portugal, and are very tasty when hot off the grill.

Only ate them once in Lisbon and they looked fantastic but have to admit I didn’t like them. Because sooo many people love them I suspect I either got a bad batch or didn’t know how to eat them. They were big sardines but fiddly to eat which I don’t mind as I quite like filleting fish on my plate but they had the guts in and the guts made any adjacent flesh taste quite nasty. Should I have been avoiding eating any flesh near the guts which is actually a fairly substantial amount and not just that, the belly flesh is generally amongst the most tasty of any fish? Or did I just get a bad batch?

 

[Kanga]

Portomarin has a firewater festival - in April. We were there one Easter Sunday and it was on. Seemed an odd combination. But lots of fun.

 

[MichelleElynHogan]

Hi Johnnie,

Thank you for this.

I had already decided to return to the Camino Frances this coming year on May 6, as it is one of my Birthdays (long story). But it will also be Mother's Day. This is most appropriate as in 2016, I attempted the Camino and an injury stopped me in my tracks. The pilgrimage was to place my Mother's ashes in the Sea.

So, you can understand, it is something that must be done. I appreciate your pointing out the significance, now for me, in more ways than one.

 

[David Tallan]

On our Camino in 2016 we passed through Astorga during the festival of the Romans and the Asturians. Roman and Asturian camps are set up just outside the city walls near the cathedral and filled with people in costumes. The city streets are likewise filled with people in costumes.

After our Camino we went to La Tomatina on the day before we flew back to Canada. I think it was more fun for my teenage son than for middle-aged me. If you go to that festival - watch your stuff!

 

[Benjamin Smith]

Walking through Torres del Río in September 2011 I was privileged to experience the Fiestas Patronales (Navarrese communal festivities). Everyone was dressed in White with red bandanas and there was a talent show of sorts with an amusing pair of MCs whose jokes mostly went over my head because of local references. Afterwards, there was a carnaval-like celebration with confetti, silly-string and wine. There was a ton of free food and a band from Logroño marched and danced through the streets like a Brazilian Samba group with motley clothing late into the night. Everyone was welcome to join in, locals and pilgrims alike. Another festival mentioned briefly by biarritzdon is the Hogueras de San Juan in Galicia. This is huge - especially in La Coruña, but there is a major celebration right on the Camino Francés route into Santiago complete with a fish (sardinhas) roast free to everyone and bonfires. These festivals seem to get larger every year. The first time I witnessed one was a small celebration in 1997 and now it is like Spring break in Coruña. Many towns and villages do a queimada and dress as meigas. If you haven't seen this, it is quite the scene of Galician Celtic pride.
http://www.hoguerassanjuan.com

 

[Isca-camigo]

Not a fiesta but a night of San Juan, I was in Vilaviciosa on the Norte, Amandi 2km away from the centre does the celebrations. I wandered out there to watch the drunken revelry. The two drunkest people I have ever seen in my life literally crashed their way back to their rooms through the hotel I was in, their clothes looked slightly burnt, probably from jumping the fires.
One I didn't go to but nearly did was a fiesta of txakoli in Lezema, just before Bilbao. I had asked the hospitalera if I could stay on one night to go to it and she agreed, but thought better of it when I woke in the morning, with less txakoli in my system.