Autumn on Costa Blanca North: Sept–Nov 2026 fiestas

Hola Terrace Crew! ☀️🍷

Pull up a lounger, pour something that isn’t quite summer-cold anymore, and let’s talk about the stretch of the year I secretly like best.

August has packed the suitcase and September is passing by very quickly. October and November are when this coast, Alicante up to Dénia, gets its interesting. Still enough sun for a late swim if you’re brave, evenings that want a jumper, and a diary that fills with fiestas, food fairs and the kind of local noise the brochures forget to mention.

Here’s the run from the city up our stretch.

Dates checked 16 September 2026 against official tourist boards and town calendars, please check links for later dates that could be changed due to weather etc.

Late September into the first weekend of October

Altea Festes Majors and Moros y Cristianos. Main days 25–29 September (some local write-ups still say 26–30). White streets, blue dome, parades that actually fit the square. Get there early, or you’ll be watching from a doorway with a plastic cup. Check: Comunitat Valenciana – Altea Moros y Cristianos

Moraira Oktoberfest, Les Sorts car park. Town calendar has it 24–27 September; villa sites still list 25–28. Beer, sausages, live music, and you’ll bump into half of Teulada. Don’t drive home “just after one more”. Check: Info Teulada Moraira fiesta calendar

D*na Festival, Dénia — 26–27 September, Marineta Cassiana. Quique Dacosta’s seaside weekend: producers, showcookings, Ferran Adrià, Paco Roncero, Susi Díaz and enough rice and seafood to ruin the week’s budget in the nicest way. Parking will be grim. Bus, walk from town, or accept your fate. Check: D*na Festival

First week of October — food, sailing and a regional holiday

Alicante Gastronómica, 2–5 October, IFA Fira Alicante. Eighth edition, Mexico as guest country, tortilla championship, chocolate-tart prize, masterclasses. Buy tickets before you go. Check: Alicante Gastronómica

Moraira Gourmet Race, 3 October, Club Náutico Moraira. The 13th edition is listed as a single day on the town calendar — sailing plus cooking on board. Watch from the club if you’re not racing. Check: Info Teulada Moraira calendar

Benidorm Moros y Cristianos, 1–4 October. If you’ve got visitors who only know the strip, this is the weekend they realise Benidorm has an old town. Entradas, noise, and the TRAM rather than the N-332 if you can. Check: Visit Benidorm

9 October — Día de la Comunitat Valenciana. Official holiday. Jávea usually does its Premis 9 d’Octubre and a concert; confirm locally before promising anyone Botifarra. Shops will be patchy; bakeries and terraces will not. 12 October — Fiesta Nacional. Flags, the odd concert, a long lunch. Dénia’s Monday market is off that day.

Calpe’s Otoño Cultural 2026 is already rolling from 23 September — thirty events through to year-end. Theatre, music, history recreations. Keep the town-hall agenda on your phone. Check: Ayuntamiento de Calp / local press write-up of the 14 September presentation.

Mid to late October — the big local one

Calpe Moros y Cristianos. Listings sit around 16–22 October, anchored to 22 October (Santíssim Crist de la Suor). Fiftieth-anniversary energy, and the fiesta has just been declared of National Tourist Interest. The desembarco on the beach is the bit you’ll still be talking about in January. If you live above the Arenal, warn the relatives. Exact parade times: official poster the week before. Check: Ayuntamiento de Calp and Costa Blanca 2026 Moros dates

El Campello Moros y Cristianos. Full run 8–15 October; the spectator core is 11–15, with the desembarco at dawn on 12 October on Carrer la Mar beach. Check: Comunitat Valenciana – El Campello

Jávea stays in resident mode: weekend craft markets on the promenade, Thursday market as usual. Local groups usually run a walk against cancer and a windsurf championship late in the month, confirm with the yacht club and the association,. Arenal in late October is still one of my favourite cheap pleasures, light like honey, hardly anyone in the water, chiringuitos still holding on if the weather stays nice.

Halloween, 31 October. Moraira puts on a festival (on the official town calendar). Orihuela Costa and the usual suspects do parades. More “kids in the plaza and a themed cocktail” than American horror unless you go looking. Pumpkins in Mercadona from mid-month, all good fun.

Into November, All Saints and the fair you should actually go to

Cocentaina Fira de Tots Sants. Official fira calendar: 30–31 October and 1 November (exhibitors can open from the evening of the 29th). Tourist board still shows 31 October–2 November; local press this week is talking a longer run into early November with hundreds of stalls. Either way: go midweek if you hate queues, take cash, wear shoes you don’t love, leave the good car at home. Check: Fira de Tots Sants and Comunitat Valenciana listing

All Saints / All Souls (1–2 November). Cemeteries fill with flowers. Quiet, local, worth understanding if you live here. Last year me and my husband a good friend bought flowers in remembrance of our mams and said a prayer an threw them in the sea, its nice to remember our love ones who are not with anymore.

Benidorm Festes Majors Patronals: 6–11 November. Locked on Visit Benidorm — Virgen del Sufragio and Sant Jaume. Check: Visit Benidorm – Patron Saint Festivities

L’Alfàs del Pi usually has local holidays around 9–10 November; confirm on the town hall site closer to the time. After that the coast slips into lights-and-turrón mode and we’ll do a Christmas post separately, I promise.

The boring-but-useful bits

Sea: still on in early October if you don’t mind “refreshing”. By November it’s a look-don’t-leap for most of us. Driving: new traffic rules from 1 October; I wrote the plain-English version already under Red Tape & Tears. Cyclists, scooters, V16 beacons. Don’t learn it from a WhatsApp forward. Markets don’t stop: Dénia Monday, Altea Tuesday, Teulada/Ondara Wednesday, Jávea Thursday, Moraira Friday, Calpe Saturday. Dénia’s Monday market is off on 12 October. Parking: fiesta weekends in Calpe, Altea and Dénia will test your marriage. Walk, TRAM, or arrive before the first mascletà.

That’s the spine of the next six weeks from Alicante up to Dénia. I’ll drop exact Calpe parade times and Cocentaina opening hours in the Monday news when the councils stop moving the posters.

If you’re visiting in October and only have one free day: Altea fiesta or Calpe desembarco if it coincides, D*na if you eat for a hobby, Cocentaina if you like a proper fair. If you live here: pick two, wear comfortable shoes, and leave room for a Tuesday night when nothing is on, and the Peñón just sits there looking pleased with itself.

Have a good one,

Joanne x

Sun Sea Sangria — Costa Blanca North

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Check before you go

Town halls move parades. Use the official link in the post, do not rely social media posts, dates change very often due to weather etc.

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