Let The Party Begin.........

The Best September Festivals in Spain

May competes with September for the best time to visit Spain and while May has the best temperatures, September has a combination of both awesome temperatures and just the right number of tourists. Incidentally, the same month has the highest number of fiestas Spain hosts for any particular month. Some of the highlights of this month include the San Sebastian celebration of film, Birraso beer festival, Rioja grape harvest and stomp festival, La Mercè festival, as well as Tarragona’s Santa Tecla festival.

Film Festival in San Sebastian

Many actors owe their success in film to this annual meet that was established in 1953. The festival is by its own right one of the most important film celebrations in the entire world. Since its inception, the actors who have graced its stage read like who is who in international film. It is top notch as far as fiestas Spain go and is worth checking out when visiting the Basque coast in September.

Birasso Beer Festival

The first weekend of September is normally Barcelona’s  time to indulge in the best of Spanish beer. During this time, beer lovers gather in Birasso to smell, taste and savour the texture of all types of beer in the Spanish market. Birasso combines all the good beer with engrossing live music performances by leading acts. Past performers have included Zeidun, The Excitements, Tokyo Sex Destruction,and Los Chicos among others. Some of the beer brands you should expect to taste are made by Freiburg, Cerveteca, Resistencia, and Ale and Hope among other brewers.

Rioja Wine Harvest

Logroño has huge carnival procession done around September 20 to offer the proceeds of the first harvest to La Rioja’s patron saint; normally a jug of traditionally crushed grape juice suffices. The juice is made by two men in traditional garb on a large wooden tub. While the men slave to appease the saint, the rest of the town is normally engrossed in revelry including gastronomic tastings, theatre, live music concerts as well as bullfighting.

La Mercè Festival

This is Barcelona’s way of ushering in autumn and includes music, arts, acrobatic shows, and street processions among 500 fun activities. The artists get to perform amongst the public and this literally takes the fever pitch of the festival to all new levels.

Santa Tecla Festival

The best way to learn about Spain’s past is to indulge in Tarragona’s  Santa Tecla festival. The celebrations feature rock music drama plays, some jazz, movies, sports, and parties with a historical reflection. The essence of the festivities has however been in the dances, which also get a lot of airtime during the celebrations.