Guide to Malaga fair: everything you need to know about the big event of the summer

Malaga residents are already counting down the days to the big summer festival, Feria de Málaga 2025, which will be held from 16 to 23 August. The event brings together hundreds of thousands of people, both locals and visitors, in the city of Malaga.

The fair is held on two large sites, the Recinto Ferial Cortijo de Torres (the fairground on the outskirts of the city near the exhibition centre) and the historic city centre itself during the day. Decorated horses and carriages will be on the fairground every afternoon.

There is room for everything at the fair, from musical shows to sporting events, historical parades, bullfighting, fireworks displays and of course plenty of dancing, eating and drinking.

This guide includes all the useful information you need to enjoy Malaga fair, such as transport, timetables, casetas, the poster and the performance programme.

The Feria de Málaga will begin this Friday night, on 15 August, with the traditional fireworks display that will illuminate the city's sky with light and colour and will bring thousands of people together to watch from the beaches and terraces around the city. See here for the timetable and details of the show.

Half of the fairground is taken up by traditional fair rides and stalls, from roller coasters to bumper cars and games with cuddly toys as prizes. The other half is made up of streets lined with open-air bars, restaurants and discotheques which all go under the common name of 'caseta'. These host performances, serve food and drinks and offer dancing through the night.

The municipal bylaw regulating Malaga fair prohibits charging for entry to casetas under any circumstances, as access should be "free and open". "Access to the fairground's casetas in the family and youth area will be open and free of charge: it's forbidden to charge or demand an invitation or purchase of a drink to access them," states the first of the ordinance's provisions. It also reminds the public that children under 16 years old will not be able to access the casetas located in the youth area, except for live performances and only during the time they last.

The city bylaw governing the Feria de Málaga 2025 includes numerous new features regarding the organisation of the event and the rules of coexistence. It generally prohibits the consumption of alcohol both in the city centre and in the Real de Cortijo de Torres fairground outside areas corresponding to bars and restaurants, although it leaves open the possibility of authorisation in some specific areas.

The new regulation will also give the 'casetas' (bars on the fairground) the power to determine right of admission. With regard to opening hours, the casetas on the fairground will open from 2pm on all days of the festival, and may end their daily activity between 2am and 6am, except on the public holiday and the night before the public holiday (19 August), when they may extend their opening hours until 7am. The casetas in the youth (juventud) area can end their activity at 7am every day. See complete information .

The local council has established the end time for fair activities in the city centre as 6pm, as in previous years. The start time has not been set, although the usual time for the street entertainment is 1pm.

A total of 2,100 officers from the National Police and the Guardia Civil will form part of the security arrangements put in place by the central government for Malaga Fair. 250 Guardia Civil officers from seven units and 1,850 officers from the National Police will form part of these arrangements, with a daily average of 200 officers on the streets throughout the feria.

'Aires de Málaga' designed by local artist Sara González Ruiz, is the poster for this year's feria. This work was the winner of the competition carried out through a participatory process promoted by the town hall's festivities department. More information about the selection of the poster here.

Javier Castillo, the author of the novel that inspired the popular series The Snow Girl, will give the opening speech to signal the start of festivities on 16 August. Castillo will become the 37th person to proclaim the fair open since the speech-giving ceremony was brought in in 1987. The Malaga-born writer is one of the most widely read authors in the world of literature today, where he debuted with El Día Que Se Perdió la Cordura (The Day Sanity Was Lost). With a style characterised by an agile pace, complex plots and the ability to keep the reader in suspense from the first to the last page of his books, his work has been translated into several languages and is widely read in dozens of countries.

There is time for everything at the fair during the day - even sporting activities. Malaga city hall's sports department has programmed a new edition of Sport at the Fair 2025, which this year includes the night race Espeto Beach Running to be held on the beach of La Misericordia, a pickleball tournament, and a 'jugger' exhibition, which is a new team discipline that combines rugby with fencing. Full programme of Sport at the Fair.

This year, the festival will feature more than 200 free musical and artistic performances in the auditorium and on the different stages from the Municipal Flamenco and Copla casetas, the Children's fair, the Verdiales casetas, the Malaga Folklore Stage and the Equestrian Exhibition Centre. Camela, Merche and Chambao will be some of the artists performing at this year's fair.

Moreno will carry the Malaga flag in the pilgrimage on Saturday 16 August, which recovers the tradition of raising the flag next to the statue of the Marqués de Larios. The journalist from Cadiz will be accompanied by a procession made up of more than thirty horse-drawn carriages and horse riders and pilgrims. The procession will start at 11am from the town hall and will end at the Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Victoria.

Due to the large number of people going to the feria, attendees are invited to park their cars and travel by public transport instead. Buses, Metro and Cercanías trains have reinforced services on festival days to provide transport both to the city centre and to Cortijo de Torres fairground. Taxi and ride-hailing services will also be increased. For the Cercanías trains, there is a new early morning timetable to return from Malaga to the Costa, starting from 5am.