Festivals

Let's start with a stand-out event - Easter in Úbeda. One piece of advice: the occasion's all-encompassing and you've got to want to get involved. It's impossible to stay in the town at this time of year without being affected. Mind you, that's if you're lucky enough to find a room - as tourists from all over Spain descend on the town, attracted by the celebrations and the chance to see how Úbeda lives and breathes semana santa!

For example, processions take place at virtually all times of the day and night, so drums outside your bedroom window mean you either suffer or go down to enjoy the sights and sounds! In fact, a procession filing along the streets of the old town at night is perhaps one of the most outstanding images of Easter Week in Úbeda.

Processions begin on Palm Sunday and follow the story of the Holy Week, each of them enacting, celebrating or suffering an event in the last week of Jesus' life. A vast majority of locals take part and belong to one or other of the  associations that organise the event.

As for other festivals over the course of the year, Úbeda's feria is San Miguel in the autumn, an excuse for a few days of partying, while the town also hosts an international music and dance festival each spring.

Moving on to Baeza, the town feria is Ntra. Sra. María Stma. del Alcázar in August, while the town is also justly proud of its own Easter celebrations. Another interesting festival is San Andrés. The latter takes place in November and transforms the old town into a medieval scene with a market and street theatre, etc.

I definitely recommend attending one of these events if you have the chance. They provide an opportunity to understand life in Úbeda/Baeza and its socio-cultural background, while also sharing the experience with the locals.