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.
Below you have an index with all the points that we are going to deal with in this article.
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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
The party program varies each year, but always maintains at least the following main events (with the exception of July 2020 and 2021 for 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. In addition, at the Glorieta del País Valencià the announcing rocket is lit 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.
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.
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.
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.
In 2021, the Local Fallera Board decided, during these festivities, to replace the Day of the Fallero and Floats with acts more adapted to the health restrictions due to the pandemic, such as concerts and exhibitions.
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.
Day of the elderly
Thursday is the old people's day, with the distribution of cokes at night as one of the main acts.
Day that Fifths
The fifths celebrate their day on Friday of the fiesta week, the day on which another bullfight is held, 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.
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.
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.
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