Malaga city prepares for its vibrant summer feria festivities

Malaga kicks off its summer fair celebrations on 14 August with a spectacular fireworks display, which announces the beginning of one of its biggest and most colourful events of the year. The fair runs from Saturday 15 to Saturday 22 August, featuring a daytime fair in the city centre, a nighttime fair at Cortijo de Torres and a first-class bullfighting programme. During this gargantuan celebration, the capital of the Costa del Sol is transformed into a vibrant celebration of live music, fairground attractions, gastronomy, traditions and entertainment for all ages.

It is one of the region's major summer events, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from across Spain and around the world each year.

As in previous years, the festivities begin on Friday 14 August at around 11.50pm, when Malaga's seafront will first be illuminated by a spectacular drone show over the Mediterranean, followed at midnight by the city's famous fireworks display launched from the area between La Malagueta beach and the port.

Once the fireworks have finished, the decorative lights at the Cortijo de Torres fairground are switched on, with thousands of bulbs illuminating the main entrance and streets of the fairground to officially open the night fair.

The day fair takes over the heart of the city centre, where Calle Larios, Plaza de la Constitución, Plaza de la Merced and Calle Granada become a continuous stage for live music, traditional verdiales folk groups, flamenco performances and street entertainers.

The daytime fair is particularly popular with tourists because it offers all of the traditional aspects of life in Andalucía. This lively atmosphere continues until 6pm, when daytime activities in the city centre officially come to an end and the celebrations move to the fairground, on the western side of the city.

Unlike other summer fairs such as Seville's Feria de Abril, one of this fair's greatest attractions is that the vast majority of the 'casetas' are open to everyone.

The entertainment in the casetas usually gets going around 10pm and will continue into the early hours. This year's programme of concerts includes a variety of different genres, although once again, the main focus is on traditional Spanish music such as verdiales, flamenco and copla.

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The night fair also offers a series of free agropop, rock, Latin pop, flamenco and copla concerts at the municipal auditorium performed by top national artists: this year's lineup includes Camela, Merche, Chambao, Toreros con Chanclas and Paco Candela, among others.

Finally, the Plaza Malagueta will host a series of bullfights, which begin on Sunday 9 August and then continue without interruption from 14 to 20 August. This year's spectacles include top matadors such as Morante de la Puebla, Roca Rey, Fortes, Emilio de Justo and David de Miranda, among others.

Feria de Málaga