The Major Festivals of Dénia: acts, dates, history and curiosities

The festivities in honor of the Holy Blood (Sang Santíssima), patron saint of the city, are the major festivals of Dénia.

Launch of the announcing rocket for the Dénia 2022 Fiestas

When is celebrated

The party begins the morning of the first or second Saturday of July and lasts 9 days, until Sunday of the following week, usually ending with a castle of fires that marks the closure.

Acts

El festival program it varies each year, but always maintains at least the following main acts (except for July 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic):

Start of the Festivities: first entraeta de bous and announcing rocket

On the morning of the first Saturday in July, the Quintos (the girls and boys who turn 18 that year), distribute the programs with all the acts. Accompanied by the brass band, they liven up the streets and prepare the people for an intense festive week. Furthermore, in Glorieta of the Valencian Country, the firing of the announcing rocket takes place around noon.

That same afternoon the first bull entry takes place, which leads to the first performance of the year of Bous a la Mar.

Campo street crowded on the first day of Fiestas

From 17:00 p.m., the street Marqués de Campo it is filled with music, people and a lot of bustle while the entrance is being prepared, and at 19:00 p.m., the announcing shot gives the start to the bulls that run through the main artery of the city and the Cervantes esplanade to the plaza installed in the port .

Aplec de Danses

Sunday is a day of dance with the celebration in recent years of the Aplec de Danses in the afternoon in the city center.

Aplec de Danses de Dénia of 2022

Peñas Day

On Monday of the week of festivities, the day of the peñas, with nightly performances and dancing, although it has been losing weight in recent years.

Discomovil in Marqués de Campo during the 2019 Fiestas

Day Fallero

Tuesday is the Day Fallero. Starting early in the morning, hundreds of falleros go through the city from house to house participating in the cucañas that each commission prepares and drenching everyone with water pistols. In the afternoon, one of the most important events of the week is celebrated, presided over for the first time by the new Falleras Mayores of the city and in which the new positions of each falla are replaced.

Cucaña during Fallero Day 2017

En 2021, the Local Board Fallera decided, during these festivities, to replace the Day of the Fallero and floats for acts more adapted to the health restrictions due to the pandemic, such as concerts and exhibitions.

Older Falleras from Dénia in the act of the Day of the Fallero of 2022

The big day: La Santíssima Sang

Wednesday is the Day of the Santíssima Sang. Religious acts predominate, with the celebration of a mass in the morning and the procession through the city center in the afternoon. Another of the unavoidable appointments that day is the concert of the Agrupació Artística Musical, which brings together hundreds of people.

Dénia parties - Concert Band

Day of the elderly

Thursday is the old people's day, with the distribution of cokes at night as one of the main acts.

Dinner during the Day of the elderly in La Vía street

Day that Fifths

The fifths celebrate their day on Friday of the week of the festival, the day on which another entrance of bulls is celebrated, the Moors and Christians parade through Marqués de Campo and the day ends with a musical performance.

In 2023 the artist in charge of entertaining the night will be Macaco.

Fifths of Dénia of 2018

The parade of floats

The second Saturday of the festivities, except for the years 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus, the center of Dénia is dressed in color with the parade of floats, declared of Provincial Tourist Interest and that brings out the floats made by the eleven commissions to the street Falleras de Dénia, which also enter the contest.

Winning float of the 2019 Fiestas

In addition to the commissions, the Falleras Mayores and their courts parade, representatives of the festivals of other towns and associations of Dénia.

You can get more information about the Dénia floats by clicking on this link.

Fireworks

The festivities end each year on Sunday with the firing of the Fireworks castle.

In recent editions, the location of this castle is on the Torrecremada esplanade.

More information about this event in the following link: Fireworks castle.

Bous a la mar

If there is something that characterizes the patron saint festivities of Dénia, it is the celebration of the bous a la mar (bulls to the sea), a festival declared of National Tourist Interest since 1993, which is celebrated in a semi-plaza installed in the port.

Historical data and curiosities

This celebration dates back to 1925 when the party took shape with the installation of a rectangular enclosure made of wood. Initially, Bous a la Mar they were announced in the party program under the euphemism "the elements with a Pamplona-style entrance".

It was in 1973 when the expression "Bous a la mar" was born and it is preserved to this day. Its importance within the patron saint festivities is so great that since 1983 they have been the protagonists of the posters advertising the festival.

More information in this link: Bous to the sea of ​​Dénia.

Festival Program of the Santíssima Sang

As we said before, the Fiestas de la Santíssima Sang, or Fiestas de Dénia, usually repeat a similar program every year. Or, at least, there are events that are fixed on the agenda for that week. Only during the summers of 2020 and 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic, did the key acts vary.

Here you can check the programs of the Festivities of the Santíssima Sang of each year (and the current one).

ADIEX

Photos