Les Festes de Vaca de Castalla 2027 will fill the town, as they do every August, in honour of its patron saint, San Roque. The name means the cow festivals, and that is what they are: encierros (bull runs through the streets), sueltas de vaquillas y toro (young cows and a bull let loose in the streets), open-air dances and several days of streets full of people until the early hours. Along with the Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians), it is one of the two big dates in Castalla’s festival calendar, and since 2026 it has also carried the title of Fiesta de Interés Turístico Local de la Comunitat Valenciana, a regional designation for events of local tourist interest.
If you are travelling in for Les Festes de Vaca de Castalla 2027 — or thinking about it, with children in tow, and you are not quite sure what you would be walking into — this is what to expect: how the programme works, what there is to do if you would rather keep well away from a suelta, and the one real deadline worth watching, the grandstand seats.
San Roque, the saint behind the festival
Les Festes de Vaca are held in honour of San Roque, patron saint of Castalla, whose feast day falls on 16 August. They are organised by Castalla Town Council and the Comisión de Vaca, the festival’s own committee, with the participation of the La Paloma ganadería, the cattle ranch that supplies the animals. Which of them takes the lead as main organiser changes from one year to the next, but all three are always behind it.
Since 2026 the festival has also been declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Local de la Comunitat Valenciana.
As for how deeply it runs in the town, the Mayor of Castalla and councillor for festivals, Jesús López, pointed out in 2025 that it is a celebration “in which even more people take part than in the Moros y Cristianos”.
The bull events, set out plainly
The programme repeats itself, with variations, edition after edition:
- A pasacalles (street parade) and the opening chupinazo (the rocket that fires the festival into life), with the town band, marching from Avenida República Argentina to the Town Hall.
- Night-time encierros in the small hours, with young cows and a bull released along the course; there are afternoon releases too.
- A morning encierro, followed by a release.
- The closing event, with the last release of the festival.
The route of the encierros is not fixed: it changed in each of the last two documented editions, and the Town Council announces it as news every time, so check it in the programme for the year you come. To watch safely, the advice never changes: follow the instructions of the Town Council and the organisers. If you would rather watch sitting down and without surprises, the answer is a grandstand seat, and we come to that below.
The official tourism listing for the Comunitat Valenciana describes the festival as a succession of routes through the town’s historic streets, with releases by night and by day and any number of gatherings among the local peñas, the clubs the town organises itself into for the fiesta. Castalla also has its own permanent bull facilities inside the town: a fixed toril (bull pen) in the historic centre and a corral in Plaza Nuestra Señora de la Soledad.
If you are coming with children, or would rather not watch the animals
Les Festes de Vaca are not only bull runs. Running alongside them there is a whole programme for anyone who does not want to go anywhere near a release:
- A children’s encierro with carretones, wheeled wooden bull frames pushed along by hand, at midday, from 12.00 to 13.00: the risk-free version of the bull run, made for the youngest.
- Verbenas, open-air night dances, once the bull events are over.
- The tardeo, an afternoon-into-evening street session with the bull peñas taking part; the meeting point has moved from one year to the next — Placeta El Carreter in 2025, the Town Hall square in 2026, in search of more room — so check it in each year’s programme.
- Solemn mass and procession, in honour of the Virgin of the Assumption and San Roque; the day and time vary too — Friday in 2025, Sunday in 2026 — so look them up in the programme for the year you come.
In practice it is a festival running at two speeds: the bull side, very much out on the street, and the side of dances, tardeo and procession, which you can live from beginning to end without going near a single release.
What we cannot tell you yet about Les Festes de Vaca de Castalla 2027
Castalla Town Council publishes the official programme for each edition at the end of July — 28 July in 2025, 29 July in 2026 — so as things stand the 2027 one does not exist yet. The only certainty is the pattern: the festival always turns on 16 August, the feast of San Roque, with bull runs, releases, dances and the procession spread over several days. Times, the route of the encierro, the exact spot for the tardeo and the line-up of peñas are confirmed each year with the new programme. One more caveat before you take anything as settled: even the length of the festival is stated differently depending on the source, somewhere between four and five days, so until the 2027 programme is out it is worth treating any exact date with caution.
Cadafals and grandstands: the one deadline you cannot miss
If you want to watch the bull events sitting down and in peace, what you want are the paid cadafals and tribunas, the wooden viewing platforms and grandstands put up along the course, which have been built to a steadily more professional standard in recent years. Here there really is a deadline: sales are squeezed into a short window, announced along with the programme — late July or the first days of August — and it changes from one year to the next, both in how long it lasts and in where it is handled.
We cannot give you dates or a point of sale for 2027, because they change with every edition. What we can tell you is that if a grandstand seat matters to you, you need to be watching from the moment the programme is published. The place to confirm dates, grandstands and the programme for the new edition is the Tourist Info office in Castalla (C/ Ancha, 03420 Castalla · +34 96 656 10 18 · turismo@castalla.org), along with the news section of castalla.org.
Stay right in the historic centre
To enjoy Les Festes de Vaca without one eye on the drive home, Casa Rural Castalla — Primavera d’hivern sits in the middle of the town’s historic centre. It is a whole house to yourselves, made for groups and families: a standard booking for up to ten guests, extendable to fifteen with extra beds, with a fully equipped kitchen, a relaxation area and La Tardor, a multi-purpose lounge for stretching out the evening before heading down to the dance. Gigabit Wi-Fi, air conditioning and free parking nearby round the stay off, and pets are welcome.
Want to see inside the house before you book? Every corner of it is here: our photo gallery.
And if the Moros y Cristianos appeal more
Les Festes de Vaca share Castalla’s festival calendar with the town’s other great celebration, the Moros y Cristianos, the Moors and Christians parades. If you are torn between the two, or would like to plan for both, ask us and we will tell you what is on while you are here.
Ready to experience inland Alicante?
Book your stay at Casa Rural Castalla and take your time discovering places like Plascaves, Castalla Castle and the Sierra del Maigmó. Your inland Alicante getaway starts here.
