Main Festivities in Granada

Three of the fiestas laong the year are considered to be essential in Granada: Holy Week, the Crosses of May and Corpus Christi. The first of these, "Semana Santa," is celebrated in March or April when local "cofradías" take their precious images of saints and virgens out on the streets in ritual processions which attract thousands of visitors every year.

The one-day "Cruces de Mayo" fiesta is unique from Granada and is perhaps the most delightful of all for its contest of flower-bedecked giant crucifixes in most of the plazas of the city and its cheerful and colorful rites of spring.

Corpus Christi, Granada's main fiesta, takes place in June. The procession itself is limited to Thursday but the festivities in the fairgrounds just outside the city are spun out for a whole week. First-time visitors are invariably captivated by the stellar levels of eating, drinking, dancing, fun and high folderol.

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Festivals

Granada hosts one of Spain's most prestigious annual musical events, the International Festival of Music and Dance, in its 52nd edition this year. This festival has grown over the past half century in program, attendance and stature and this year offers three stunning weeks (the last two of June and the first of July) of musical programming. The concerts, camera music, recitals, ballets, contemporary dance, antique music, electro-acoustic, flamenco and contemporary music events take place in the most beautiful settings all over the city: in the Alhambra and Generalife, the Albaicín, the Cathedral and many other evocative historical places.

The Granada Jazz Festival has also established itself as a favorite in Granada and done its part to foment genuine fondness for this black American musical language. Since 1980 it has brought to this city jazz legends like Miles Davis, Oscar Peterson, Charlie Haden, Art Blakey, Tete Montoliu, Dizzy Gillespie, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock or Chano Domínguez.

Granada's Tango Festival is in its 15th edition this year and has consolidated itself as one of this city's most interesting initiatives, not only in musical terms, but as a valuable cultural interchange between two cultures which are so close and, at the same time, so apart.

Granada also hosts a series of other festivals which reinforce this city's devotion to artistic and cultural matters. These include the annual Theater and Short Film.

• More information on Granada's International Festival of Music and Dance
• More information on the Granada Jazz Festival
• More information on the Granada International Tango Festival

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