Valencia’s year: festivals, stadiums and stages

About Valencia’s year: festivals, stadiums and stages

By the ULTIMATE Valencia Editorial Team

Editor-in-Chief: Jai Michael

Valencia’s year runs from fire in March to flowers in July and a marathon in December. Here is the city’s calendar, its stadiums and stages, its universities and art foundations, and the writers, painters and architects who made its name.

Spring

The year’s great event is the Fallas, from 15 to 19 March, when hundreds of giant satirical sculptures fill the streets and are burned on the final night, La Cremà. UNESCO inscribed the festival as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2016; our Fallas page has the full programme. In Holy Week the fishing districts of El Cabanyal and El Grau celebrate the Semana Santa Marinera, with processions down to the sea, and in late spring or early summer the Corpus Christi procession brings out the roques, huge carved festival carts kept in their own museum.

Summer

In late June Valencia celebrates Pride, and early summer brings the Festival de les Arts, a pop and indie festival in the City of Arts and Sciences. The Feria de Julio ends on the last Sunday of July with the Batalla de Flores, the Battle of Flowers, when floats decked with flowers parade down the Alameda and everyone throws carnations. The beaches of Malvarrosa and El Cabanyal stay busy until late at night.

Valencia’s year runs from fire in March to flowers in July.

Autumn and winter

The opera and concert seasons open in the autumn at the Palau de les Arts and the Palau de la Música in the Turia Garden. 9 October is Valencian Community Day, the anniversary of James I’s entry into the city in 1238, with a civic procession. In December the Valencia Marathon, known for its flat, fast course, runs through the city to a finish line on the water at the City of Arts and Sciences.

Stadiums and arenas

Valencia CF has played at Mestalla, one of Spain’s oldest stadiums, since 1923; its new stadium, the Nou Mestalla, is under construction, with the club aiming to open it in the summer of 2027. Levante UD plays at the Ciutat de València. The Roig Arena, opened in September 2025 beside the City of Arts and Sciences, is home to Valencia Basket and seats 15,600 for sport and up to 20,000 for concerts. In Cheste, 30 km west, the Circuit Ricardo Tormo hosts MotoGP; check the season’s calendar.

Universities

The Universitat de València was founded in 1499. Its historic building, La Nau, on Calle de la Universidad, has a Renaissance cloister and a historic library, and hosts exhibitions open to visitors. The Universitat Politècnica de València has its campus near the sea.

Foundations

Contemporary art in Valencia is shown by the IVAM, the Valencian Institute of Modern Art, opened in 1989; by the Centre del Carme in a former monastery; by the Fundación Bancaja; and by the Centro de Arte Hortensia Herrero, in the restored Palau de Valeriola in the old town. The same foundation paid for the restoration of the frescoes of San Nicolás, completed in 2016, and the church is now known as “the Valencian Sistine Chapel”.

Writers, painters and architects

The poet Ausiàs March and Joanot Martorell, author of Tirant lo Blanc, are the great names of Valencia’s golden century; in the twentieth century the poet Vicent Andrés Estellés wrote of the city in Valencian. Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, the novelist of The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, built a summer house on the beach at Malvarrosa that is now a museum. The painter Joaquín Sorolla, born in Valencia in 1863, filled his canvases with its beaches and light; the Museo de Bellas Artes has a fine collection of his work. And Santiago Calatrava, born on the edge of the city in 1951, designed the City of Arts and Sciences, with the Spanish-Mexican engineer Félix Candela building the Oceanogràfic.

Our advice: for the full spectacle, come for the Fallas, but book months ahead and bring earplugs. For something gentler, aim for the Battle of Flowers in July or the autumn opera season.

Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with Valencia’s year: festivals, stadiums and stages before you go.