San Sebastian Festivals And Events Calendar

San Sebastián, in the Basque Country of Spain, keeps its festival calendar on a handful of dates that barely move: the drums of Tamborrada on 20 January every year, the Santo Tomás fair on 21 December, and Semana Grande anchored to the week of 15 August. The city's official name is Donostia / San Sebastián, and everything on this page belongs to that one city on La Concha bay in Gipuzkoa, not to the Puerto Rican town, the Florida winery or the Canary Island port that share the name. Each festival below comes with the rule that fixes its date, because that rule, not a single year's calendar, is what a traveller can plan around. For the full spread of the city's attractions, the things to do in San Sebastian page covers the everyday sights between the parties.

What Is The Festival In San Sebastian July 2025?

There was no major city festival in San Sebastián in July 2025, and that is the normal pattern: the city's big festival, Semana Grande, is always the week of 15 August, so it fell in August 2025, not July. July in San Sebastián belongs to Jazzaldia, the jazz festival, which held its 61st edition in 2026 and typically spreads across July days. Travellers who saw "festival in San Sebastián" attached to July were almost always looking at Jazzaldia.

The confusion is understandable, because the phrase "San Sebastián festival" gets attached to several different events. Jazzaldia is the July one, an open-air jazz festival whose stages sit against the bay. Semana Grande, the Basque-language Aste Nagusia, is the August one, and it is the event most English-speaking visitors mean when they say "the festival". The film festival closes the summer in late September.

The tourism board's own fiestas page gives the anchor dates, and the July gap between them is real. AEMET's normals for its Igeldo station show why July still draws crowds despite being a festival-light month: 196 sun hours, the highest of the year, and 86 mm of rain, the lowest. Even the driest month averages about ten days with at least 1 mm of rain, so pack for showers whatever the calendar says.

If your question is really about a later year, the city's festival identity for each summer is covered in what is the festival in San Sebastian Spain 2026, and the length of the main event is answered in how long the San Sebastian festival lasts.

What Festivals Are In San Sebastian?

The main festivals in San Sebastián are Tamborrada on 20 January, the Carnival period in late winter, the Semana Grande fireworks week around 15 August, the Quincena Musical classical festival in August, the La Concha regattas on the first two Sundays of September, the International Film Festival in late September, the Behobia-San Sebastián footrace in November, and the Santo Tomás fair on 21 December. Jazzaldia fills July. Each follows a fixed rule, so the pattern repeats every year.

The table below shows the annual cycle. The rule column is what you plan with; the exact dates for the year you travel should be confirmed with the organiser, since the silent list includes several events whose specific dates this site does not publish.

Two notes on what the calendar does not say. The txotx cider season, the winter ritual of drinking cider straight from the barrel in the cider houses around Astigarraga, runs from the middle of January to the end of April by the tourism board's wording, and it is a season rather than a single festival. And the San Sebastián Street Festival sometimes confused with this city's events is the Fiestas de la Calle San Sebastián in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and has nothing to do with the Basque city.

Festival weeks are also the weeks when the Old Town bars are at their fullest, which is exactly when a guided introduction pays for itself. These three tours all run through the festival heart of the city:

When Is Semana Grande In San Sebastian?

Semana Grande, in Basque Aste Nagusia, is always the week of 15 August, running Saturday to Saturday, and it is the biggest festival in San Sebastián. The 2026 edition ran 8 to 15 August. Its signature event is the International Fireworks Competition, fired over La Concha bay on successive nights, and the week also brings concerts, fairground rides on the Boulevard and crowd events across the centre.

The fireworks are the reason many visitors time their whole trip around this week. Each competing nation's team fires a display over the water, and the whole city turns to face the bay to watch. The seafront, the Monte Urgull slopes and the island all become viewing terraces.

The weather in August deserves honest planning. AEMET's Igeldo station records August as the city's warmest month, a mean of 19.5 C with a mean daily maximum of 22.5 C, but also wetter than June, July or September at 117 mm of rain over about ten days. Semana Grande is not a dry-weather festival, and the fireworks go up whatever the sky is doing.

Hotel demand follows the festival. The INE hotel data for the city's tourist point shows August as the year's peak month, 245,769 hotel overnight stays in 2025, a little over twice January's figure. Book early for this week, and expect the Old Town to be busy until very late.

What Is Tamborrada In San Sebastian?

Tamborrada is San Sebastián's drum festival, held on 20 January every year, the eve and day of the city's patron saint. Adult companies in 19th century uniforms march and drum through the streets, and the sound runs through the night and into the following day. It is the city's own festival in the deepest sense, rooted in the Old Town's own tradition rather than staged for visitors.

January is the quietest tourist month in the city, 115,910 hotel overnight stays in the INE's 2025 figures against August's 245,769, so Tamborrada is a festival where locals vastly outnumber visitors. The weather is winter Atlantic: AEMET's Igeldo station gives January a mean of 8.5 C, 141 mm of rain over about 13 days, and just 98 sun hours. Come for the drums, not for the beach.

The festival's start and end hours, the number of participating companies and the children's parade are details this site does not publish, and they change year to year; the tourism board's fiestas page is the place to confirm them for the year you travel.

When Is The San Sebastian Film Festival?

The San Sebastián International Film Festival fills late September every year, and its 74th edition ran 18 to 26 September 2026. It is one of Europe's long-running A-list film festivals, based around the Kursaal on the east side of the Urumea mouth, and it brings premieres, stars and red carpets to a city that is otherwise winding down its beach season.

The Kursaal, Rafael Moneo's building inaugurated on 23 August 1999 after his proposal was chosen in 1990 from six invited architects, is the festival's headquarters and main screening venue. The full story of the venue is on the Kursaal guide, and the festival itself has a dedicated page at the San Sebastian film festival.

September is a month that rewards the visit beyond the cinema. The La Concha regattas share the month, the sea is still at the end of its lifeguard season, and AEMET's normals give September a mean of 18 C with 111 mm of rain over about ten days. The 2025 hotel figures show 216,759 overnight stays, higher than any month outside the summer peak. More of these guides are collected on San Sebastian Spain Guide.

When Are The La Concha Regattas?

The Bandera de La Concha, the La Concha regattas, are rowed on the first two Sundays of September every year, with the women's race at 11:00 and the men's at 12:00. The 2026 races fell on 6 and 13 September. It is the oldest event of its kind, first held in 1879, and the women's flag has been rowed for since 2008.

The regattas are the one festival where the bay itself is the stage. The traineras, the long Basque rowing boats, race across La Concha in front of the promenade, and the crowd lines the railing from one end to the other. On the two race Sundays the island boat service shifts its schedule around the racing; Hondalea's own notices for 6 and 13 September 2026 show its first session moved to 15:30 on both days.

The racing is also tied to the seasonal services around the water. The lifeguards on all three city beaches serve from 1 June to 30 September, and the Santa Clara island boats run their high season over the same window, so the regatta Sundays sit inside the last stretch of the full summer operation. From 16 September the lifeguard day is already cut back to 13:30 to 19:30.

What Are Jazzaldia, Quincena Musical And The Behobia Race?

Jazzaldia is San Sebastián's jazz festival, held in July, with its 61st edition in 2026; Quincena Musical is the classical music festival, whose 87th edition ran 2 to 30 August 2026; and the Behobia-San Sebastián is a footrace from the French border into the city, whose 61st edition falls on 8 November 2026. Together they fill the gaps between the headline festivals with music and sport.

Jazzaldia is the most open of the three: its stages sit outdoors, several of them free to walk up to, and the festival spreads the July evenings across the bay and the Old Town. The exact dates for any edition are published by the festival itself, and this site does not print them; the Jazzaldia guide covers the festival in full.

Quincena Musical is the oldest of the city's music festivals and the most indoor, built around the Kursaal's halls. It overlaps the front of Semana Grande, so an August visitor can move between a morning at the beach, an afternoon concert and a night of fireworks over the bay.

The Behobia-San Sebastián brings thousands of runners over the border from Hondarribia's side of the river into the centre in early November. It shares its month with the first cold snaps: AEMET's Igeldo station gives November 169 mm of rain, the wettest month of the year, over about 13 rain days, with a mean temperature of 11.3 C.

How Do The Festivals Fit The San Sebastian Year?

The San Sebastián festival year runs cold to cold: Tamborrada's drums in January, the txotx cider season from mid January to late April, Jazzaldia in July, Semana Grande and Quincena Musical in August, the regattas and the film festival in September, the Behobia race in November and Santo Tomás on 21 December. Every one of these follows a rule that repeats annually, so the same calendar works for any year you choose to visit.

The table below sets the festivals against the weather the month actually delivers, using AEMET's normals for the Igeldo station. The point of the pairing is honesty about what a festival trip involves: the biggest festival of the year sits in a month with 117 mm of rain, and the driest month of the year is a quiet one for headline events.

One more pairing matters for anyone planning around the crowds. The INE hotel figures for the city show the shape of the year: August's 245,769 overnight stays in 2025 against January's 115,910, with April to October never dropping below 200,000. Festival weekends push those months higher still.

Whichever festival you build the trip around, the eating and the drinking are half of what the week actually feels like, and the festival streets are the streets these three tours work best on:

Which San Sebastian Festival Should You Plan A Trip Around?

Plan around Semana Grande if you want the biggest spectacle, fireworks over La Concha every night and the fullest streets; around Tamborrada if you want the city's own festival in its rawest, most local form; around the film festival if you want stars, premieres and a September that still swims; and around Jazzaldia if you want open-air music in the sunniest month. The regattas suit a visitor who wants one spectacular Sunday rather than a whole festival week.

Each choice carries a different city. Semana Grande's city is loud, late and crowded, with hotel demand at the year's peak. Tamborrada's city is local, wintry and drummed into the small hours, with the visitor count at its floor. The film festival's city is polished and busy in the evenings but still beach-warm by day. The regattas give you a single morning of high drama and the rest of the weekend free.

For the timing question in the round, the best time to visit San Sebastian guide weighs the whole year, and how many days in San Sebastian helps you size the trip around whichever festival you pick.

The Old Town is where every one of these festivals lands, and knowing its layout before the crowds arrive is worth an hour of your first afternoon:

And if your festival trip falls anywhere in the txotx window, from mid January to late April, the cider house ritual is the one seasonal experience with a date on it:

Common Questions About San Sebastian Festivals

The questions below are the ones this page's calendar raises most often, answered from the same fixed rules: Tamborrada on 20 January, Semana Grande in the week of 15 August, the regattas on the first two Sundays of September, the film festival in late September and Santo Tomás on 21 December.

The festival calendar of San Sebastián is, in the end, a small set of dates the city keeps faith with: drums in January, fireworks in August, oars and cinema in September, a race in November and a fair in December. Pick the one that matches the city you want, check the organiser's dates for your year, and let the rest of the calendar take care of itself.