Walking the Camino de Santiago offers plenty of profound moments, but you can also experience incredible local celebrations along the way. Timing your walk to coincide with famous Spanish and Portuguese festivals adds immense fun to your trip.
At a glance:
- The St James Day festival in Santiago de Compostela on 25 July features massive fireworks and incredible food.
- Read through our festival list below to find the perfect cultural event for your upcoming walk.
- We handle your logistics, daily baggage transfers, and hotel bookings so you can simply enjoy the festivities.
- The San Fermin running of the bulls in Pamplona brings high-energy excitement to the Camino Frances every July.
- Late September walkers can witness traditional grape trampling during the La Rioja Harvest Festivals in Logroño.
- Portugal celebrates Freedom Day on 25 April with nationwide events that remember the Carnation Revolution.
The Camino de Santiago unquestionably involves plenty of walking and probably a few spiritual or reflective moments, but you can still make room for a little fun as you follow the path of St James.
Luckily, Spaniards tend to take the fun to a whole new level, and if you’re fortunate enough to be passing through an area where one of the country’s many festivals is taking place, it is well worth joining in.
What Festivals Can You Experience Along the Camino?
Walking the Camino de Santiago is about challenging oneself, both mentally and physically, but it’s also about exploration and experiencing new things. And what better way to experience the local culture than with one of the many riotous festivals that Spain has come to be known for.
Immersing Yourself in Local Celebrations
You want to taste authentic Galician food right at the source, perhaps sharing plates of octopus and green peppers with friends at the Padron Festival in August. Organising a trip around a busy event can feel overwhelming because places to stay fill up fast.
We handle every detail: booking your accommodation with daily breakfast, moving your bags, and providing 24/7 support. This means you can focus on the music, the traditional costumes, and the communal wine vats in La Rioja, knowing your comfortable bed is waiting for you at the end of the day.
St James Day – 25th July – Santiago de Compostela
We can’t start any list of Camino de Santiago events without beginning with the colossal party held in Santiago de Compostela each year to celebrate St James Day. With a huge fireworks display, music and enough food to feed several cities, this is one party that shouldn’t be missed if you’re near Santiago. Festivities begin roughly ten days before the 25th, before building slowly to their climactic crescendo.
San Fermin – 6th-14th July – Pamplona – Camino Frances
Some see it as barbaric cruelty, others as cultural heritage, but one festival impossible to ignore on the Camino Frances is the famed running of the bulls in Pamplona. San Fermin has grown substantially in recent decades and now stands as one of the most well-attended festivals across Spain, with around 1 million people cramming into the city over the period.
Beyond the Bull Run
While the running of the bulls is what everybody remembers, San Fermin is much more than just sprinting for your life with a snorting 750 Kg bull close behind. Expect mountainous amounts of food, seemingly infinite amounts of wine and high-octane fun that you won’t find anywhere else but Pamplona in early July.
The La Rioja Harvest Festivals – 21st September – Logroño – Camino Frances
After the drama of Pamplona, your walk moves to a more sedate pace in the La Rioja region. This area is splendid to walk through, and it produces superb Camino wine known around the world. Towards the end of September, the entire region holds festivals to mark the harvest season, but Logroño is without question the place to be if you can time it right.
Starting on 21st September and continuing for the next week, the harvest festival is a colourful extravaganza where grapes from different vineyards are hauled through the city before being placed into a large communal vat. Then comes the traditional trampling by feet with the juice extracted, finally poured into a jug and dedicated to the Virgin of Valvanera, patron saint of La Rioja.
Semana Santa (Easter) – March/April – Across the country
You might be religious or not, but Easter, or Semana Santa as it is known in this part of the world, is an exciting period in Spain and Portugal. For anyone walking the Camino de Santiago, these Easter festivities are generally held across the country and involve processions, food stalls, traditional costumes and plenty of revelry.
While the importance of Easter may have declined in other European countries, it remains an important period in Spain, and if you happen to be passing through one of the major cities at the time, it’s well worth making a stop to soak up the atmosphere.
Semana Grande – Bilbao – First Saturday after the 15th August – Camino Norte
The largest festival in Northern Spain kicks off just after the 15th of August in the thriving Basque city of Bilbao, a place that you really should be spending some time in even outside festival season.
Semana Grande (The Big Week) often runs for 9 or 10 days and involves near constant street parties held in honour of the Virgin of Begona, or Mother to the Basques. If you have any interest in Basque culture and are anywhere near Bilbao at this time, this is one festival you won’t forget anytime soon.
Día da Liberdade (Freedom Day) – 25th April – Across Portugal – Camino Portuguese
Each year on 25th April, Portugal marks the Carnation Revolution of 1974 with nationwide celebrations remembering the peaceful transition to democracy after several decades of dictatorship.
Wherever you are on the Portuguese Camino, you’re sure to be near one event or another, and it would almost be rude not to indulge in the nation’s national day. While there is certainly plenty to eat and drink, Freedom Day in Portugal also comes with plenty of retrospection as the country remembers its difficult past.
Talks, film screenings and exhibitions are usually part of the programme and give you an excellent opportunity to sample the delights of Portugal and begin to learn about its history.
Arribada – Baiona – 4th-6th March – Camino Portuguese
On 1st March 1493, a ship entered the harbour of the small Spanish town of Baiona, and with it came quite extraordinary news that a new world had been discovered. Each year, the town throws a wonderful festival to commemorate the news that Christopher Columbus and his men had discovered the Americas.
The festival has more than a splash of the old–fashioned, with costumes, food, games and much more that might have been common in the 15th Century on show.
Padron Festival – First Saturday in August – Herbon/Padron – Camino Portuguese
If you manage to make it all the way to Santiago de Compostela without experiencing a plate of the delicious Padron peppers, then you’re missing out. Now a firm favourite across the whole of Spain, the green peppers even have their own festival that is held in tiny Padron and the neighbouring Herbon each year in August.
But don’t worry, there is far more than just Padron peppers on the menu. The festival takes the opportunity to revel in the abundance of excellent Galician food on offer, including octopus, mussels, shellfish, empanadas and pork sausage.
This is a small festival, especially compared to some of the others on our list, but it is a wonderful insight into Galician life if you happen to be in the area.
Planning Your Camino Around These Festivals
Planning your Camino for festival season can take your walk to another level of energy and colour.
Pick the dates and route that suit you best, then let U Walk look after your accommodation, daily bag transfers and on-call support so you can relax into the celebrations.
You focus on the music, food and atmosphere, and we will take care of the rest, so get in touch to start planning your festival-filled Camino.
