Granada festivals and events 2026: month by month

Late May into July is the peak. The Corpus fair runs from 30 May into early June, and the Festival de Música y Danza fills the Alhambra with concerts from 11 June to 12 July. May itself is busy too, with the Cruces de Mayo and Noche en Blanco. If you want fewer crowds, November pairs the jazz festival with off-peak hotel rates.

Granada's Feria del Corpus runs 30 May to 6 June 2026, with the main Cathedral procession on Thursday 4 June and the Tarasca parade the day before, on 3 June. The casetas at Almanjáyar are free and open to all. The fair date moves each year because Corpus falls 60 days after Easter Sunday, so it lands in late May or early June.

The exact 2027 dates are not yet published, because Corpus is a moveable feast tied to Easter: it falls 60 days after Easter Sunday. With Easter Sunday on 28 March 2027, Corpus Thursday lands on 27 May 2027, so expect the fair to run roughly the week of 22 to 29 May 2027. Check turismo.granada.org once the official programme is confirmed.

The Festival Internacional de Música y Danza runs 11 June to 12 July 2026 (its 75th edition), with the free FEX programme starting two days earlier, on 9 June. Concerts take place inside the Alhambra's Palace of Charles V, the open-air Generalife Theatre and the Corral del Carbón. Ludovico Einaudi opens on 11 June. Headline nights sell out months ahead; the festival guide covers booking.

Holy Week in Granada runs 29 March to 5 April 2026. The dates move every year because they follow the week before Easter Sunday. Easter falls on 28 March in 2027, so Granada's Semana Santa 2027 will run roughly 21 to 28 March. The signature night is the Cristo de los Gitanos procession through Sacromonte on Holy Wednesday, lit by bonfires. Street viewing is free; book accommodation by January.

Most are. The Cruces de Mayo, Noche en Blanco and the Virgen de las Angustias procession cost nothing. Semana Santa street viewing is free, and the Corpus casetas are open to all. The exceptions are ticketed: the Música y Danza concerts (free FEX events aside), the jazz theatre shows and the guitar festival venues outside the Alhambra.

The Cristo de los Gitanos procession during Semana Santa. On Holy Wednesday the float climbs through the Sacromonte cave neighbourhood while residents light bonfires outside their homes along the hillside paths. The combination of firelight, narrow lanes and the float emerging from the dark is unlike anything elsewhere in Spain. Go early; the paths fill from around 8 pm.

Yes. Two festivals stage concerts inside the Alhambra complex. The Festival de Música y Danza (June–July) uses the Palace of Charles V for orchestral nights and the Generalife Theatre for ballet and flamenco. The Guitar Festival (July–August) also plays the Palace of Charles V. For the guitar concerts you need a valid Alhambra evening admission ticket alongside the free concert entry.

The Festival Internacional de Jazz de Granada has not confirmed its 2026 dates yet. The 2025 edition ran 31 October to 8 November, with pre-programme events from late October, so expect a similar window. Theatre headliners at the Teatro Isabel la Católica cost €20–40, but most of the 80-plus concerts across the city are free. The programme is usually published in September.

The Día de la Toma is a civic-religious ceremony every 2 January marking the 1492 handover of Granada to the Catholic Monarchs. It is a local public holiday and free to watch. It is also Granada's most politically divided day: far-right groups gather at the official ceremony, while the civil-society platform Granada Abierta runs a parallel coexistence event. Visitors should know the context before attending.

Winter is quiet. The Día de la Toma falls on 2 January and Día de Andalucía on 28 February, which opens the state museums for free. There is no major festival between them. That makes January and February practical months to visit without festival-week prices; the Granada in winter guide covers what to expect.

For confirmed current dates, use the upcoming festivals strip near the top of this page, which lists the next events in calendar order, and the festival dates table below, which sets out all 11 events with dates, length, price and crowd level. Both reflect confirmed dates rather than typical windows, so they are the most reliable reference here. Each row links to a dedicated event page.