🇬🇧 On summer evenings the Plaça de Castelar and the Plaça de la Senyoria, the two squares at the top of the old town of Benidorm, fill with craft stalls. What sets this market apart from the big weekly markets in the town is that the traders sell their own work: jewellery, ceramics, leather goods, decorative objects and original paintings of the coast. Because of the location the market is also known as Les Nits del Castell.

🇬🇧 After the summer in Altea, the painted canvases of Balconades d'Altea move on to l'Alfàs del Pi, where they hang from balconies and facades in the village streets. The exhibition has run since 1998 and 55 artists take part in the 2026 edition.

🇬🇧 Three days of culture in the old town of Villajoyosa, from 11 to 13 September 2026.🇳🇱 Drie dagen cultuur in de oude kern van Villajoyosa, van 11 tot en met 13 september 2026.🇪🇸 Tres días de cultura en el casco antiguo de Villajoyosa, del 11 al 13 de septiembre de 2026. 🇬🇧 La Vila Vella turns the old town of Villajoyosa into an open-air cultural programme. From 11 to 13 September 2026 you will find close to 40 activities spread over the streets of the casco antiguo, the district of coloured houses that holds the status of Bien de Interés Cultural. The town council organises it together with a large group of volunteers, and this year it grows from two days to three.

🇬🇧 Over the last weekend of September Altea holds its main fiestas, in honour of the Santíssim Crist del Sagrari and Sant Blai, and they are the largest thing that happens here all year. Eighteen filaes — the Moorish and Christian companies — take over the streets with parades, mock battles, brass bands and mascletaes. The fiestas are recognised as a Fiesta de Interés Turístico of the Valencian Community.

🇬🇧 The D*na Festival turns the seafront promenade of the Marineta Cassiana in Dénia into an open-air gastronomy festival for a weekend. It is run by the Fundación Dénia Ciudad Creativa de la Gastronomía and curated by Quique Dacosta, the Dénia chef with three Michelin stars. 2026 brings the ninth edition, on 26 and 27 September.

🇬🇧 On Sunday 24 January 2027 Santa Pola holds the thirty-fifth edition of its half marathon, one of the four most highly rated in Spain. The 21K starts at 10:30 from the Avinguda Fernando Pérez Ojeda and the 10K is run the evening before, on Saturday at 17:00. The field is capped at 7,000 numbers and the race sells out.

🇬🇧 On 17 May l'Alfàs del Pi celebrates the Norwegian national day, and has done so every year since 1971. Around 2,000 people take part, many of them wearing a bunad, the regional costume whose colours and cut tell you which part of Norway a family comes from. Nothing about the day is military: the children walk at the front.

🇬🇧 On the night of 23 June the beach of l'Albir fills up for Sant Joan, the shortest night of the year and traditionally the start of summer. The one thing to know before you go is that you cannot light a fire here: the Dirección General de Costas banned bonfires on this beach years ago, and a single official fire, supervised by the emergency services, is burned at midnight.

🇬🇧 On a weekend in July the old fishermen's quarter around the Carrer Sant Pere, between the port and the Platja de la Roda, holds its own fiestas for Sant Pere and the Verge del Carme, the patrons of fishermen. This is a neighbourhood affair rather than a town-wide one, and it survives from a time when far more families in Altea made their living at sea. The exact dates move each year, so check them before you build a day around it.

🇬🇧 Torrevieja honours the Mare de Déu del Carme, patron of fishermen, in the week leading up to 16 July, organised by the town hall together with the fishermen's guild. The date is fixed; the run-up varies. The main day starts at 08:00 with the Diana Musical, a band walking the streets to wake the town.

🇬🇧 For one week in late July, choirs from across the world come to Torrevieja to compete in the habanera. The contest has run since 1955 and is declared of Interés Turístico Internacional, the highest such recognition in Spain. The 2026 edition brought together more than 700 singers in fifteen choirs from Europe, America and Asia; every choir performs one set piece, two habaneras of their own choosing and two polyphonic works.

🇬🇧 From 24 to 31 July every year, La Vila Joiosa holds its Moors and Christians in honour of Santa Marta, declared of Interés Turístico Internacional. Around 4,000 festers from 22 companies take part, with more than 500 musicians. What sets these fiestas apart from every other version on this coast is a single act: El Desembarc.

🇬🇧 One night at the end of July, 32 children from Xàbia become the pieces of a chess game on a ten by ten metre board laid out on the Avinguda Lepanto, surrounded by stands for around a thousand people. A narrator and two players read out the moves of a famous historic game, and around that game a play is performed: a different story every year, with costumes, music and lighting. This is the town's only Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional, a title it has held since 2002.

🇬🇧 The Fiestas de l'Albir are the summer fiestas of the coastal part of the municipality, held over a long weekend in the second half of August with the Parc dels Eucaliptus as the main site. The exact dates shift from year to year, so check before you plan around them. This is a neighbourhood party rather than a tourist event, put on by the peñas with the town hall.

🇬🇧 Through the whole of August, Moraira puts live music on the street on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings. The Voramar Street Jazz Festival is not a single big concert but a series of small sets spread across different streets and squares of the town, which means you walk into it rather than buy a ticket for it.

🇬🇧 The Moors and Christians of Dénia spread across the first half of August, with the main days from the 13th to the 16th. Eighteen filaes, nine on each side, fill the streets between Carrer Diana, Marqués de Campo and the Plaça del Consell. The parades, the entry of the bands, the arquebus battles, the procession and the fireworks are all free to watch from the street.

🇬🇧 On the night of 13 August Elx sets off close to 2,000 kilos of gunpowder and some 70,000 rockets, not from one launch site but from balconies, rooftops and squares across the whole city at once. It starts around 23:15 and for the best part of an hour the sky over the palm groves is continuous noise and light. Locals call it the night of fire.