The Craziest Festivals in Spain

All of us understand that the Spanish love to savor themselves and the most extravagant display of the desire to possess fun is embodied within their popular annual festivals, or "ferias" as known in Spanish Benidorm Fiesta, that take place in nearly every one of the villages and towns throughout Spain.

Several of those carnivals have deep historical and religious roots and others are newer and are simply about having fun. Yet one thing is for sure, the festivals that I'm about to fairly share are completely bizarre and definitely not for the faint-hearted. I'm not merely speaking about the Semana Santa Feria in Seville for example where the most you will dsicover is colourful flamenco dresses and a lot of drunk people dancing in private tents. I'm speaking about the truly weird festivals that take place in Spain that would offer a health and safely inspector a coronary attack! So if it's in your bucket list to complete something wild and uncontrollable, I've created a calendar of events so you can spend a lot of the year being downright deranged (or at the least watching others act like that!)

JANUARY - San Vicente de Martir - this controversial event happens on the final Sunday of every January in town of Manganeses de la Polvorosa, Zamora. The pious villagers honour their patron, St. Vincent, by choosing essentially the most unlucky goat in the whole of Spain. Poor people unfortunate beast is then carried in a procession down the meandering streets where it's transported up the bell tower of the local church and subsequently dumped of a screen some 50ft high to its impending doom. The flying goat is hopefully caught by villagers holding tarpaulins directly below. The hapless animal that doesn't survive this dreadful ordeal is then discarded and the partying continues. However, if the goat survive (which is rare) it's then paraded through the streets on the shoulders of the partygoers marking the start of this bizarre festival and can be a local legend for a long time to come. Animal rights activists have on many occasions experimented with ban this cruel carnival. However, to date the villagers show no sign of relenting and stopping this strange ancient tradition.

FEBRUARY - El Entroido - this festival in town of Laza is probably one of the weirdest and is really a celebration of the finish of winter and the start of spring. This strange party involves people throwing large antballs at each other. Yes, you read this correctly... they actually gather large balls of mud swarming with live ants and hurl them randomly at any unfortunate person who happens to be their target! However, it's very interesting to view (perhaps from the balcony out of the means of manure-smelling missiles!) whilst the colourful and very ornate "Peliqueiros" run through the streets holding flaming torches. Later on, every one of the festival-goers gather together where they dance, throw much more dirt at each other, start whipping people and stuff their faces with the barbecued heads of goats and pigs. By the end of the Entroido they hold a funeral for the sardines where a huge replica sardine is placed alight and villagers either dress in black to signify they are mourning the sardine or white to imitate sardine ghosts. Throughout the hustle and bustle, a "morena" then enters the stage, which really is a person dressed as a brown cow filled with a wooden cow's mask. The cow then proceeds to butt its head in to the crowds and use its horns to lift up womens'skirts! Udder madness!

MARCH - Las Fallas - The Fire Festival in Valencia happens between 15th - 20th March and is really a pyromaniac's dream come true. This unusual, and let's face it, perilous event includes raging fires, eruptions of flames, fireworks, lively music, bonfires and of course a lot of drinking and eating. Giant puppets called ninots are carefully crafted prior to this five-day spectacular which are then dotted around the town centre. Through the day there are lots of exploding firecrackers being set off throughout the city and at 2pm there's an extraordinary firework display called La Mascleta. The culmination of the festival is on 19th March at exactly midnight when all the road lights are deterred and all but one of these simple magnificent paper mache sculptures are set alight. The chosen ninot that's not consumed by the fire is then put in the Fallas Museum in Valencia.

MAY - La Batalla de la Rata Muerta - The Dead Rat Battle - mmmm, sounds lovely. I do believe I'll book some flights at go there on 6th May! Now I'm getting a theme here... the Spanish just love to throw things at each other whether it's fire or ants - but no, they have to go one step further in town of El Puig in Valencia and throw dead rats!!! Yuk. In the annual Fiesta de San Pedro Nolasco, in place of a pinata they make use of a similar paper mache ornament called a "cucana ".However, unlike a pinata which contains sweeties, 1 / 2 of the cucanas don't contain anything of the sugar variety but instead are harbouring a dead rat. If you're fortunate enough to really have a deceased rodent in your cucana (yes, you're deemed a winner) you're able to make use of this as a projectile to throw at other partygoers and a fun for several begins. The Spanish really can be mad.

JUNE - El Colacho - this traditional holiday dating back again to 1620 is more commonly called the "Baby Jumping Festival" and takes place in the initial week of June in the village of Castrillo de Murcia near Burgos. Celebrating the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi, the week-long festivities culminate on the Sunday when the baby jumping happens through the village procession. No, I'm not speaking about babies themselves jumping about on tiny trampolines. The "Salto del Colacho" (Devil's jump) actually involves men dressed whilst the Devil jumping over mattresses. The unusual aspect of the act is that lying on the mattresses underneath the leaping satans are babies have been born in the previous 12 months. Now you're probably asking yourselves, "why on the planet do they try this?" Well, as legend has it this act is said to cleanse the newest souls of original sin and ensure their safe passage through life, guarding them against evil spirits. I do believe I prefer the original baptismal ceremony of pouring holy water over a baby's head. Let's face it, it is really a much safer option!

JUNE - La Batalla del Vino - This crazy wine-throwing festival happens a town called Haro, in the wine-growing region of Rioja. It is held on 29th June on the patron saint day of San Pedro. The procession begins at 7am with hundreds of people standing in the streets dressed up in white shirts red and scarves, all carrying containers filled up with red wine. The town's Mayor leads the procession on horseback and after a large is celebrated there's a genuine free-for-all fun wine battle. You truly need to be wearing goggles if you're in the heart of the drunken festival as everybody begins to throw wine everywhere! At noon, the partygoers return to the Plaza de la Paz followed closely by bullfights in the town's bullring. The Haro wine festival is pure unadulterated pandemonium and a lot of fun for folks who don't mind resembling a sticky blueberry after the celebrations are over! In the event that you miss this madness, then a similar chaotic festival takes place in a town called Pobla del Duc in Valencia on the final Friday in August. La Raima involves folk throwing a lot of grapes at each other and getting very messy indeed.

JULY - La Rapa das Bestas - this ludicrous festival happens on the initial weekend in July in a town called Sabucedo, Galicia. The Shearing of the Beasts involves a group of very brave (or probably mad!) men wanting to wrestle and tame a big group of wild horses which are brought down from the mountains. The three-day weekend celebrations begin when the herders set off in the early hours in to the mountains to get some 600 horses in total. It culminates in the rounding up of the wild horses in a "curro" (an ancient stone amphitheatre) where men attempt to mount each horse and clip its mane and tail. Young horses will also be caught and branded with a warm iron - poor things! This peculiar festival dates back from the beginning of the 18th Century and as you can imagine it's an exceptionally dangerous event. Only experienced villages are allowed to take part in the curro but visitors can increase in to the mountains to gather the beasts. So you need to remember these horses are wild in nature anyway and the shock of being brought down from the mountains and being herded in to a confined space makes them much more ferocious! Daily ends with a lot of partying and by the end of the next curro on the Sunday most of the horses are herded up and set free again in the mountains.

JULY - Bous a la Mar - The "Bulls to the Sea" festival happens on the initial Saturday in July in town of Denia, Alicante and is really for the "non compos mentis ".The feria lasts a full week however the highlight is watching bulls chase people down the main street where they eventually arrive at a pier. The bulls are taunted so much that they become extremely aggravated and in a raging fury they jump into the ocean after those mad enough to become listed on in this strange festival. After having a while in the sea being goaded much more by the brave participants, the bulls are eventually rounded up and towed back again to shore. As usual, a huge street party follows and most people don't remember what are the results next. Now, if that is too much for after this you probably the next festival is really a better one to view (definitely not take part in though) since it doesn't involve swimming with raging bulls!

JULY - La Feria de San Fermin - The Crazy Bull Running Festival is well-known and very well-liked by tourists from all around the world. San Fermin takes place in Pamplona, Navarra, between 7th-14th July when each morning at 8am a firecracker signals the start of the bull run. Hundreds of insane people run-down the narrow streets of the old town with fearsome bulls going after them. This crazy run ends in the town's bullring where young cows with wrapped horns are released and the insane participants are then thrown about a little by these beasts. The unfortunate bulls are later killed in the bullring when the bullfighting starts in the afternoon. In this week there are lots of other events that take place, including the giants and big heads parade and "el struendo" where people gather at midday at the Town Hall to make just as much noise as you possibly can for a number of hours. However, the bull run is the main event that puts Pamplona at the top of the festival charts.