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.

Entradeta on the first day of Festivities of 2019

When is celebrated

The party begins the morning of the first Saturday in 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 starter of bous and chupinazo

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 street and prepare people for an intense festive week.

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 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 pm, the announcing shot sends the bulls that run through the main artery of the city and the Esplanade Cervantes to the square 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 and the performance of one of the dance schools in the evening.

Dénia parties - Aplec de Danses

Peñas Day

On Monday of the holiday week, the day of the peñas, with nightly performances of orchestra and dance.

Discomovil in Marqués de Campo during the 2019 Fiestas

Day Fallero

Tuesday is the Day Fallero. From early in the morning, thousands of falleros travel the city from house to house, participating in the cucañas that each commission prepares and wetting everyone with squirt guns. In the afternoon, one of the most important events of the week is held, 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.

Parties Dénia - Day fallero

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 thousands of people.

Dénia parties - Concert Band

Day of the elderly

Thursday is the old people's day, with a paella contest held in the Calle Marques de Campo and the distribution of cocas at night as 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 festival week, the day in which another bull entrance is celebrated and that ends with a musical performance.

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.

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 in the sea), a festival declared of National Tourist Interest since 1993, which is celebrated in a semi-square installed in the port. There, the participants aim to get the bull to fall into the water.

Thousands of people come to the square in the morning and afternoon sessions to see the show.

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 festival program under the euphemism "Elements with an entrance to Pamplona style".

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

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).

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