Alicante hosts a variety of seasonal festivals and religious events which attract many visitors to this intriguing vibrant city.

The city is especially known for its colourful parades and fiestas, which involve huge parties with dance and music flowing throughout the streets, all night long.

The locals are very passionate in upholding traditional festivals and thoroughly enjoy the amusement that comes along with them, as well as encouraging visitors to join in and celebrate together.

• Featured below are also Alicante’s National Public Holidays.

FEBRUARY

Alicante Carnival - Every year, around the time of Shrove Tuesday, Alicante celebrates a colorful carnival that lasts for three weeks. The festival begins with the Don Carnal and Dona Cuaresma plays, followed by daily street celebrations. The highlight is on Sábado Ramblero (2 February), when the city's main thoroughfares, La Rambla and El Barrio, fill with stunning costume parades, music and dancing.

The carnival ends with a ceremony called 'Funeral Wake and Burial of the Sardine', during which masks and make-up get buried till next year’s carnival. To complete the mourning act, everybody wears black and carries a candle in their hand.

MARCH - APRIL

• Dia de San Josė (St Joseph’s Day) : 19th March.
• Jueves Santo (Maundy Thursday) : late March or early April.
• Viernes Santo (Good Friday) – late March or early April.

Semana Santa (Easter) - This is one of Alicante’s main religious celebrations and lasts between Palm Sunday to resurrection Easter Sunday. Brotherhoods usually participate in the parade where art work is also presented by famous artists. On Holy Wednesday the main procession take place in streets of Santa Cruz. Holy Thursday see’s the ‘paso de la Santa Cena’ sculpture being carried through the parade and this is referred to as the Holy Supper Float. Easter falls between late March and early April depending on the Lunar Calendar.

The Pilgrimage of the Holy Visage (Santa Faz)- This is a very popular pilgrimage, considered to be the second most important in Spain after the Andalusian Rocío. During this pilgrimage, wherein, in one single day some 200,000 people holding pilgrim's canes and wearing typical orchard-workers blousons walk to the Monastery of the Santa Faz to worship at the shrine. Along the way to the shrine, people stop for a short break known as "paraeta" during which people eat anise rolls and drink typical Alicante wine known as fondillón.

Moors and Christians Festival (Moros y Cristianos) This is a fiesta celebrating the recapturing of Spain from the Arabs in the 12th century. The festival of Moors and Christians has become one of the main festivals that represents the social life of Alicante, getting to be, overall, an attractive mix of religion, etiquette and street festival. The friendship is an essential component of the festival of Moors and Christians. Without that spirit of camaraderie the festival would not exist. In Alicante the festival begins by dianas waking up the people in the morning. Then everyone heads to the centre of the town to welcome the entradas, the arrival of Moors and Christians as they march in period costumes. Then the festivities begin where a re-enactment of battles and dialogue between the Moors and the Christians is acted out by various filaes. The festival ends with informal and comic retreats. Each filaes has its own retreat, the kábila for the Moors and the cuartel for the Christians. At the retreats, people enjoy food and drinks.

MAY

• Labour Day : 1st of May

Cruces de Mayo (May Crosses) - During the annual Cruces de Mayo festival, held in May from the 1st to the 3rd May in the Santa Cruz neighbourhood of Alicante, the atmosphere is filled with music, dance and flowers. The cobbled streets, warm plazas and quaint balconies get a makeover as they are decorated with flowers arranged into the shape of crosses.

JUNE

Saint John's Bonfires - The Fogueres de Sant Joan is an important celebration in Alicante, which pays homage to Saint John and welcomes the summer season with bonfires and fireworks. The celebrations have been going on for hundreds of years and exact date and time is not known but today's activities dating back to 1928. On the night of the 20th June, large satirical artistic monuments of paper maché and wood are set up all over the city. Four days later, on the Nit del Foc, they are burnt in what is known as the crema. After the crema, a huge firework display presented at the St Barbara Castle can be seen from all over the city of Alicante.

JULY - AUGUST

Virgen del Carmen - Alicante is a port that has depended on the sea for its trade and culture. So it is natural that fishermen pay tribute to the patron saint of sailors and also decorate their boats. The highlight of the festival is at the island of Tabarca, where a statue of the Virgen is sitting in her own boat during a sailor’s procession.

Summer Festival (Festival de Verano de Alicante)- Every summer in Alicante, a two-month-long programme of music, theatre and dance is staged in the Paseo del Puerto, located alongside the port. The programme includes interesting acts and displays, which are appreciated by many. International artists from Mexico present the Ballet Folklorico de San Luis de Potosi while those from Ghana show off their acts of Ballet, Love, Peace and Unity.

This begins in July and lasts throughout August.

Jazz Festival - This attracts many great musicians to Alicante; this major summer festival begins in July and ends in August. There are various Jazz performances allocated around the city in bars and entertainment venues.

Virgen del Remedio – (Our Lady of Remedy)- On the 5th of August the matron saint of Alicante, ‘Virgen del Remedio is honoured by launching parades. Two days before there is a ‘feast day’, and the ‘Alborada’, as well as the Port Summer festival also taking place.

• Feast of the Assumption : 15th August

A national holiday takes place in order to celebrate the principal feast of the mother of Christ. The feast honours two events, the departure of Mary from this life and the assumption of her body into heaven.

SEPTEMBER

Virgen del Socorro - The Raval neighbourhood whose main street and its chapel is named after the saint, was traditionally home to sailors and fishermen. This procession, which takes place between September 6th and 10th, is celebrated to honour the patron saint. During these days, festivities include dancing, music, food and fireworks are in full swing.

OCTOBER

• National Day : 12th October

Public Holiday. Celebrations take place around the city of Alicante and the rest of Spain.

NOVEMBER

• All Saints Day : 1st November

DECEMBER

• Constitution Day : 6th December
• Feast of the Immaculate Conception : 8th December
• Christmas Day : 25th December
• New Years Eve : 31st December

There are a number of firework displays lighting up the city, as well as a heap of party celebrations livening up the streets, as Alicante welcomes the New Year.