Complete Guide to La Feria in Seville, Spain

Seville in itself is a magical place, but by the time April rolls around, the city seems to evolve into the best version of itself. With longer days, warmer nights, and the change of Spring sweeping through the city, it’s no surprise why the Sevillan people have something to celebrate. This is where La Feria comes into play.

Most Americans have heard about Oktoberfest in Germany or St. Patrick’s Day in Ireland, but La Feria in Spain seems to fly under everyone’s radar, which is exactly why I wanted to go.  Lucky for me, this was the year that my dream would become a reality.

La Feria de Abril (April Fair) is an event I’ve wanted to experience for quite some time. In fact, three years ago right before studying abroad in Barcelona, I watched a Rick Steves episode of Seville, which showed a brief highlight of the festival.

From that moment on, I knew that I had to go to La Feria at least once in my lifetime.  Little did I know, a year would pass and I would eventually be dating someone from that exact city. As you could probably imagine, this was one of the first topics I brought up when I met my Sevillano.

Unfortunately, when I was abroad as a student, I wasn’t able to make the trip to La Feria. The following year, I was about to graduate college, which meant I would have another long, anxious year of waiting. Finally, when I decided I was going to move back to Spain, I knew from the very beginning that this would be the year I would be able to go.

What is La Feria in Seville, Spain?

Every year during the month of April, all the towns throughout Southern Spain in Andalucia put together a week-long festival of partying, dancing, eating, drinking, and socializing. While all cities have a unique take on their own personal Feria, Seville definitely takes the cake for having the most impressive.

There are two parts to the La Feria fair grounds: the amusement park and the casetas. Calle del Inferno or “Hell Street” is the name of the area with all the rides and attractions. This section is just like any other carnival you’ve been to with rollercoasters, food, and lots of games. Although this is half of La Feria, we only spent about an hour in this area throughout the entire week.

The rest of the time we spend in the casetas. On the other side of the fair were rows and rows of casetas. These small huts are basically family or business-owned areas for dancing, eating, and lots of drinking. La Feria in Seville has over 1,000 different casetas, each unique in decor and size. To help you navigate this vast area, there are street signs named after old famous bullfighters. Every little detail of this place was authentically spanish.

During the day, the cobblestoned streets are packed with horse-drawn carriages filled with locals touring the fairgrounds. Even the horses were dressed to impress with flashy ornaments as they trot through the caseta-lined alleys.

Before I went to La Feria, I assumed there would be fewer casetas, but they would all be pretty big in size. Surprisingly, there were an impressive amount of these party tents, and most of them were a lot smaller than I expected. The Casetas have a small room in the front area with tables for eating that can be quickly folded up for dancing. In the back half, that’s where you can find a full-sized bar serving mixed drinks, tapas, and the favorite La Feria drink, rebujito.

An important thing to know before going to La Feria is that it can be very difficult as a tourist to get the full experience. As said before, each caseta belongs to either a business or family, which means you have to know someone to get in that belongs to that caseta. While there are public casetas, these ones are overcrowded, busy, and as you could imagine, a bit touristy.

This is part of the reason why I think I had such an amazing time at La Feria. Not only was I with my boyfriend who has grown up in this city, but all of his friends were also there, which meant we were able to go from caseta to caseta without any issues. In fact, we spent more time in his friend’s casetas than his own.

When is La Feria in Seville?

If you are planning a trip to La Feria, just know it starts on a different day every year. Generally, La Feria takes place two weeks after Semana Santa (Holy Week), or Easter. This year, Feria de Abril started on Sunday, April 15th and lasted until April 21st. On the night before the official start, locals celebrate “Pescaito,” which is when you get together with either your friends or family and eat lots of fried fish.

Once you’re done eating and drinking, you then head on over to the fairgrounds to watch the lights turn on for the first time at the Portada, which is the main entrance of the fair. At exactly midnight, crowds gather throughout the entire area to watch the start of La Feria switch on with colorful lights. Unfortunately, we were still in the eating and drinking phase when the lights turned on, but we arrived around 2 am and continued anyway.

What do you do in La Feria?

So, now that you are there and you’ve made it in a caseta, now what?

Well, this depends on the time of day you go. Most days, I would go around 4 or 5 in the afternoon. Normally at that time, we would order some tapas and jarras of rebujito at the bar and begin our day slowly.

La Feria during the day is a lot more relaxed in my opinion (but this can also depend on the type of caseta you are in). The afternoon is usually the best time to have a sit-down meal, socialize with friends, and learn to dance flamenco. And speaking of Flamenco, this traditional dance completely enhanced the overall atmosphere throughout the entire fair in my opinion. You could see kids as young as 8 or 9 and even grandmas in their 70’s all lining up to dance their classic routine.

All casetas have a different agenda. Some have live flamenco music while others are playing reggaeton through heavy speakers. Once it gets later in the evening, most casetas play party music until the early hours of the morning or until the crowd wanders to a different caseta.

What Do You Wear to La Feria?

If you’ve seen any photos from La Feria, you’ve probably gotten a glimpse of the elaborate flamenco dresses that all the Sevillanas wear. These dresses are sophisticated and elegant, some very traditional while others taking on a modern style.

If it’s your first time at La Feria, you don’t have to dress up in the full ensemble. But for me, since I’ve been wanting to go for so many years, I decided to do it right and go all out. Now, getting a flamenco dress for La Feria is not cheap. New dresses usually start around 300 euros (OUCH). But if you are a student studying in Seville or will be there for a long time, you can always check online second-hand options like Facebook groups or wallapop.com.

Is it Expensive to Go to La Feria?

I felt like this was a very important point to address. If you are going to La Feria, expect to spend some cash. And that’s not because it’s actually expensive, it’s because you spend a whole week eating and drinking. Each jarra of rebujito cost around 8-10 euros depending on the caseta and the tapas seemed to be about the same or slightly more expensive than you would normally find in Seville. The south of Spain is known to be very inexpensive, but if you go to La Feria all day and night for 5 days straight, you can expect it will eventually add up. However, with that being said, it’s so worth it. Trust me.

What Do You Eat at La Feria?

As you could probably assume, tapas are always involved with the La Feria celebration. I was surprised about how many tapas the casetas offered and how good the food was even though it was coming from a tiny makeshift kitchen in the back. From montaditos (tiny sandwiches) to croquetas, and even fried fish, these kitchens were crankin’ out all the classics.

The food is incredible and is definitely needed after a day full of drinking. I HIGHLY recommend ordering the flamenquin. This tapa is basically a fried pork and Jamon roll, cut into bite-sized pieces and served with fries. Yes, it’s not the healthiest, but did it taste like heaven? Absolutely.

To wash it all down, everyone drinks the same cocktail of rebujito. This drink is made with manzanilla (a type of sweet wine) and is mixed with 7-up with lots of ice. Sometimes the bartender will even throw in a sprig of mint if he’s feeling fancy. From day to night, you can see pitchers of rebujito and miniature wine glasses in every hand.

Even though La Feria may seem like a simple concept, it’s actually really hard to explain the dynamics unless you have truly visited it yourself. Even though I had talked about the event with so many of my friends from Sevilla before I had gone, it still wasn’t enough to prepare me for what I actually experienced.

So there you have it. As an American living in Spain, I was completely blown away by La Feria in every single way. This one event was the most authentic experience I have ever witnessed throughout all of my travels. After waiting so long and finally being able to go, I feel incredibly lucky to be living in Spain and experiencing this crazy and beautiful life.