Culture, sporting and musical events stand out once again as the ‘best plan B’ for travelling to Benidorm

A destination for all audiences and offers to enjoy 365 days a year. Benidorm City Council is going to present it at the International Tourism Fair that starts today in Madrid, Fitur. It offers major sporting, cultural and musical events that will take place during 2025 and that make it the tourist destination with the best 'plan B' in the entire national scene. More than twenty sporting events, five major cultural cycles and six music festivals, whose calendar opens next week with the fourth edition of the Benidorm Fest, are part of this enormous complementary offer to the sun and beach tourism model that has made Benidorm internationally famous, along with gastronomy, nature or its status as the first certified smart tourist destination in the world.

An offer that, in addition, this year will be completed with a recognition and a celebration that will also be the subject of numerous activities to place Benidorm even more in the spotlight: the granting of the distinction as a European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism destination by the European Commission and the commemoration of the 700th anniversary of the founding of Benidorm, with the granting of its first Charter in the year 1325.

The mayor of the city, Toni Pérez, has stated that “the year 2025 will undoubtedly bring great things for Benidorm” and has reiterated the municipal commitment to “being able to continue hosting great events and continue offering experiences, both to our residents and our visitors, to continue being the best destination to live and also to come to”.

National and international competitions

The first of the fields that the mayor has referred to is sport, whose calendar was successfully launched last weekend, with the Cyclocross World Cup. “Our commitment to major sporting competitions is one of the strategies that is giving the best results,” said Pérez, “and the best example has once again been this stage of the World Cup that we have hosted for the third consecutive year in the Foietes and El Moralet parks,” with more than 15,000 tickets sold and a national and international projection of the city “without parallel.”

In addition to this competition, the calendar will feature more than twenty major sporting events during 2025. More than 45,000 athletes, assistants, and companions from all over the world are expected to participate. These include regional, national, European, or international championships as was the case in 2024, and will cover disciplines such as darts, basketball, football, indoor football, taekwondo, swimming, chess, athletics, or jet skis.

For one more year, Benidorm will once again host established events such as the Costa Blanca Cup, in which some 5,000 players and nearly 300 youth football teams will participate from July 6 to 12, arriving from more than twenty countries; or the Benidorm Half, which will take place on November 22, with the 10K and 21K events, in which more than 6,500 runners will participate, of which more than 30% come from the United Kingdom.

Culture for all

Toni Pérez has explained that, apart from the sporting aspect, the 'plan B' in the cultural field will be important in 2025. Not in vain, throughout the year there will be cycles or festivals of great renown that will bring to Benidorm great national and international figures in fields such as music, theatre, dance or cinema, as well as other events of lesser impact but that "are also interesting and can be very attractive within the segment of the complementary offer", as Toni Pérez has highlighted. And, with the added value that, in addition, the majority of activities are carried out free of charge, "thus bringing high culture closer to people and making it available to all audiences".

Among these events, the XXXVI edition of the Benidorm City International Music Course and the XXVI edition of the Music Competition, which is taking place within this course, stand out. They will take place from June 30 to July 4, with the participation of great music masters and the attendance of more than 150 students of different nationalities, offering daily concerts free of charge for the general public and which last year attracted more than 1,300 spectators.

The programme also includes the XIII International Organ Festival of the City of Benidorm, which in recent years has turned the city into a world reference by bringing together the main figures of this instrument, with free concerts open to the public and which will take place throughout the year, on the last Friday of each month. This entire musical programme is also completed with the Cycle of Great Recitals, with concerts by performers linked to the Valencian Community and of international projection, which premiered last Friday with the voice and piano concert ‘Cuadernos alicantinos’, uniting the music of Óscar Esplá with texts by Gabriel Miró.

In the field of dance, Benidorm will once again host the Les Ones Festival from 26 to 28 June, which in its fifth edition is once again programming dance performances by professional companies in the streets and squares of the city, such as the Castell or the Plaza de SS MM los Reyes de España, and whose programme also includes workshops and classes at the Dance Conservatory. All this makes Les Ones a unique event in our region, as it brings together both facets in the same event: the cultural and the educational.

For the third consecutive year, the Benidorm Cultural Centre will host a new edition of the Amateur Theatre Showcase in May, in which professional and amateur theatre companies will participate. This offer will also be completed with the Children's and Family Theatre Cycle, in which different works will be programmed from January to December, both at the Town Hall and at the Cultural Centre, and the 'Joves Espectadors' Cycle, with performing arts shows for primary and secondary school students, which will take place in February.

Finally, Benidorm will also roll out its red carpet, in this case as the stage for a competition dedicated to the 'little brother' of the seventh art: the Skyline Film Festival, which this year celebrates its ninth edition from 29 March to 5 April, already consolidated as a benchmark within the short film production sector in our country.

Capital of Music

As far as major music festivals are concerned, the first and most talked about due to its enormous national and international impact is taking place in just a few days: the Benidorm Fest, the competition organised by Benidorm City Council, the Generalitat Valenciana and Radio Televisión Española, from which Spain's representative at Eurovision will be chosen. In just four editions, the event has attracted the attention of the main media outlets in our country and beyond our borders. In addition, it has generated a lot of interest among the public, to the point that RTVE sold out tickets in just a few minutes to watch both the semi-finals - which will be held on 28 and 30 January - and the final gala, which will be on 1 February, so in 2025 it predicts "a new success with the public and its impact for our city", Toni Pérez anticipated.

In addition to these Benidorm Fest galas, the City Council has organised a programme that includes a 'village' area in the Plaza de SS MM los Reyes de España, for 'eurofans', with 'food trucks', entertainment and other activities, as well as themed parties or the broadcast of the galas in public spaces with giant screens. Likewise, from January 25 to February 2, you can visit an exhibition on the history of the legendary Benidorm Song Festival, organised by the City Council and RTVE.

Along with the Benjdorm Fest, also throughout 2025, the city will be the scene of other major concerts or festivals, such as the broadcast of the Eurovision final, on May 17; the Tribute to the Route, which will take place on June 7; the Low Festival, which will have this same stage from July 25 to 27, celebrating its 15th anniversary this year; and the Iberia Festival, whose official dates are yet to be revealed.