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Hogueras and festivals in Alicante and the surrounding area: calendar and tips

Machine translation made with AI: it may contain errors. Please check the details in the official sources.

Last checked: 2026-10-14

Alicante lives its year with fire, gunpowder and parades. The Hogueras de San Juan are the big festival, but there is more: Holy Week (Semana Santa), the Santa Faz pilgrimage, the Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians) festivals in several neighbourhoods, and Christmas. The surrounding towns also have their own festivals. This guide summarises what the official websites publish. Exact dates and times change every year: check the official programme before you go.

Hogueras de San Juan (Fogueres de Sant Joan)

These are the city's Official Festivals. According to the City Council (Ayuntamiento), the official days run from 20 to 24 June, and they are declared of International Tourist Interest and Intangible Cultural Heritage (Bien de Interés Cultural Inmaterial). They are organised by the festival community through the Federació de les Fogueres de Sant Joan (hogueras.es), with around ninety foguera committees and more than ten thousand direct participants.

What to see, day by day

  • Plantà: the hogueras, monuments of ephemeral art made of cardboard, wood and paint, are set up in the streets. The tourism website places the plantà on 20 June. The ninots (figures) provide the social and political satire.
  • Mascletàs: from 18 to 24 June, every day at 14:00, in the plaza de los Luceros.
  • Flower offering to the Virgen del Remedio: on 21 and 22 June. It has been held since 1941. The parade ends at the Co-Cathedral of San Nicolás (Concatedral de San Nicolás) and the flowers are placed in the plaza Abad Penalva.
  • Parades and street processions: the programme includes the Pregón (opening proclamation), parades, pasacalles (street processions) and the Cabalgata del Ninot. The nanos i gegants (big-heads and giants) dance through the streets.
  • Barracas: open-air enclosures in the middle of the street, with a decorated entrance, linked to each foguera. The City Council counts more than 60. There you will always find coca amb tonyina (tuna flatbread) and les bacores (early figs).

La Nit de la Cremà (24 June)

At midnight on 24 June, la Palmera is fired: a firework launched from Santa Bárbara Castle (Castillo de Santa Bárbara), on Mount Benacantil. That launch "authorises" the start of the cremà (burning). The Official Foguera in the plaza del Ayuntamiento burns first, followed by the more than 90 hogueras in the neighbourhoods.

Afterwards: fireworks on the beach

From 25 to 29 June, at midnight, there are firework displays (castillos) on Postiguet beach (playa del Postiguet) (Cocó area). Many people have dinner on the beach and wait there for midnight.

Practical tips

In 2025, the City Council put in place a special traffic plan from 17 to 25 June:

  • Restricted access to the city centre, with checkpoints and a 20 km/h limit, and occasional road closures for parades, mascletàs and cremàs.
  • The City Council asked people to leave the car at home and use park-and-ride car parks and public transport.
  • The TRAM ran without interruption on lines 1, 2, 3 and 4 from 20 to 24 June. During the mascletàs, the Luceros stop closed at around 13:30–14:20; the alternative was Mercado station.
  • There were night bus lines.

The plan changes every year: check the one for the current edition at https://www.alicante.es/ and the programme at https://www.hogueras.es/.

Holy Week (Semana Santa)

It has been a Festival of National Tourist Interest since 2022. Around 30 brotherhoods and confraternities take part. The processions go through the old town, the centre and the streets near the port. Highlights:

  • Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos): "La Borriquita", with palm fronds.
  • Holy Wednesday (Miércoles Santo): through the steep, narrow streets of the old town.
  • Maundy Thursday (Jueves Santo): ends with the adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.
  • Good Friday (Viernes Santo): the Santo Entierro (Holy Burial).
  • Easter Sunday (Domingo de Resurrección): the Encuentro (Meeting), with a shower of aleluyas (paper prints) from the balconies of the plaza del Ayuntamiento.

The date depends on the Easter calendar. Each year's programme is published at https://alicanteturismo.com/fiestas/semana-santa-de-alicante/.

Santa Faz pilgrimage ("La Peregrina")

According to the City Council, it is held on the second Thursday of Easter after Holy Week (in April or May). For some years now, the festival has stretched over the whole weekend. It brings together around 300,000 people.

  • Start: at 8:00, from the Concatedral de San Nicolás. From 7:00, canes with rosemary are handed out at the Co-Cathedral and at the City Hall.
  • Route: about 8 km on foot to the Monastery of the Santa Faz (Monasterio de la Santa Faz), which keeps the relic of the face of Christ. The route goes along the avenida de Dénia and the Alicante-Valencia road.
  • Paraeta municipal: halfway along, local wine (mistela) and aniseed rolls (rollitos de anís) are handed out.
  • In the village: opening of the camarín (shrine chamber), mass in the square and a fair with crafts and traditional products.

Practical tips

The tourism website recommends worn-in shoes, comfortable clothes, a cap, sunglasses and drinking water before you get thirsty. In 2024, the City Council closed the N-332 (Sant Joan–Alicante direction) and the avenida de Dénia, ran shuttle buses from the plaza Puerta del Mar every 5 minutes and added extra TRAM services. Check each year's plan at https://www.alicante.es/.

Moros y Cristianos in Alicante

The City Council and the tourism website mention the festivals of four areas:

  • San Blas: since 1943. Festival of Regional Tourist Interest. In July.
  • Altozano: started in 1945. Festival of Provincial Tourist Interest. In August.
  • Villafranqueza ("El Palamó"): since 1975. Provincial Tourist Interest. In March.
  • El Rebolledo: official since 1996. Local Tourist Interest. In July.

The most spectacular events are the Entradas (parades) and the Embajadas (embassies). In addition, on the first weekend of August, Postiguet beach hosts the Gran Desembarco Moro (Great Moorish Landing), which recreates a battle from 1599. It coincides with the festivities of the Virgen del Remedio, the city's patron saint.

Christmas and Three Kings

  • 6 December: feast of San Nicolás, patron saint of Alicante, with mass, a procession and a Moros y Cristianos parade from Luceros to the plaza del Ayuntamiento.
  • Belén Monumental (Monumental Nativity Scene): in the plaza del Ayuntamiento, in the Guinness Book of Records since 2019. Open to visitors from late November to 7 January.
  • Cabalgata de Reyes (Three Kings Parade): every 5 January. According to the tourism website, the Kings arrive at the port and the Cabalgata goes through the centre to the plaza del Ayuntamiento. Times and chair sales at https://alicanteturismo.com/fiestas/navidad/.

Festivals in the surrounding towns

San Vicente del Raspeig

  • Fiestas Patronales y de Moros y Cristianos (Patron Saint and Moros y Cristianos Festivals): in April, in honour of San Vicente Ferrer. In 2026 they ran from 7 to 19 April, with the Bajada del Santo, the Fiesta de la Flor, the Entradas and the Baile del Farol.
  • Hogueras y Barracas: in July. Festival of Provincial Tourist Interest, with 10 hogueras, around twenty barracas, mascletàs and an offering to the Virgen del Carmen. They end with the cremà at midnight on Sunday. In 2026 they ran from 10 to 19 July.

El Campello

Desembarcament i Festes de Moros i Cristians, from 11 to 15 October. Festival of Provincial Tourist Interest. The most awaited moment is the Desembarco Moro (Moorish Landing) in the early hours of 12 October on the Carrer la Mar beach. On the 15th there are events in honour of Santa Teresa and the Virgen de los Desamparados, with a firework display.

Mutxamel

Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos in September, in honour of the Virgen de Loreto, with ten comparsas (festival groups). According to the Valencian Community tourism website, the programme includes the pregón on the 7th, the offering and procession on the 9th, the Gran Entrada on the 10th, and the embassies and the Retreta on the 11th and 12th.

Sant Joan d'Alacant

Fiestas Mayores in honour of the Santísimo Cristo de la Paz, from 12 to 16 September. Provincial Tourist Interest. They are organised by the peñas (festival clubs): peñas parade, offering of flowers and fruit, processions, float parade, mascletàs, open-air dances (verbenas) and fireworks.

Disclaimer: general information; check the details with the official source.

Sources