The main festivals and activities in Grazalema
Festivals and activities of all types are the delight of both Grazalema people and their visitors, allowing getting everyone to know our heritage values; our social and cultural values and our gastronomic values while enjoying the wonderful environment that surrounds us (check the cultural agenda). Throughout the year, theme exhibitions are offered, whether oil painting, photography or handicraft exhibitions; contests about confectionery, pumpkins and gastronomy in general, according to each season; handicraft workshops, theatre and musical performances, sportive events, routes and all types of programmed activities in the nature, as well as environment-related days, etc.
The main festivities, celebrations that go back to several centuries in the past, are as follows:
– The first summer celebration is Romería de San Isidro, celebrated on the last Sunday of May. People celebrate the arrival of summer with a lively procession of almost all the village inhabitants descending towards the meadow at the valley of the river bank. As traditional, there is plenty of food and drinks and hustle of horses and decked out riders, organizing contests related to the equestrian theme. The party continues all day long until at dusk everyone goes back to the village with the same festive mood.
– During the third week of July, Fiestas del Carmen are celebrated. They start with an Announcement at the end of June and they continue on Thursday and Friday with Noches Flamencas: a recital of singing and dancing in a beautiful stage, the Huerto de San José Park, next to the church that holds the same name. On Saturday, the Carmen brotherhood offers a concert by the local Musical Grouping in the San José Church and, as usual, the traditional fireworks in Los Peñascos Square take place, since it is the highest square in the village. On Sunday, at noon, there is a fake Toro de la Cuerda for children and, in the afternoon, the main event of this festivity takes place: the procession of the Virgin through the streets of the village, all decked out for this event. At the dawn of Monday, everyone is groomed with the “Toro enmaromado” running of the bulls, which take place again through the village streets at 12 am and 7 pm. Every night there will be delightful music and dance until dawn. (Visit the webpage of Peña Ñunes of Toro de Cuerda)
– On the third week of August, “Fiestas Mayores” are celebrated. These are four days of celebrations that include live music, dancing, heifer loosening, contests and various activities, concluding the celebrations with the ascension of the Patroness Our Lady of the Angels in a small but solemn night procession, from the Hermitage, that can be visited during the whole year, until the village, to therefore walk her through the village and then descend her again to the temple at nightfall on the 8th of September, the official day of this patroness.