Thousands of club members take to the streets of Benidorm tonight for the ‘Clubs Parade', hours before the official start of the festivities

Thousands of members of club will take to the streets of Benidorm tonight to participate, once again, in the traditional ‘Entrada de Penyes’ (Entrance of the Peñas), the event with which the people of Benidorm anticipate the official start of the city's main festivities by showing off their traditional blouses and other accessories, such as wigs, headdresses, and costumes, making it one of the most anticipated events of the year. The parade, organized annually by the Associació de Penyes Verge del Sofratge (Association of Clubs of the Virgin of Sufragio), will depart at 10:00 PM from Ruzafa Street towards Martínez Alejos, where the member peñas will be received by Mayor Toni Pérez and the rest of the City Council, as well as by the queens of the 2025 Patron Saint Festes Majors, Paula Pascual Sánchez and Aitana Pérez Gutiérrez; their courts of honor, festival organizers, and members of the board of the Comissió (Commission) and the Associació de Penyes (Association of Peñas).

Before that, various events related to the festivities will take place. At 6:00 p.m., on Martínez Alejos Avenue, the official lighting ceremony for the illuminations that will decorate the city's main streets during these days is scheduled. The ceremony will be led by the 2023 queens, their courts of honour, and local and festival authorities. From there, the procession will move to the Porrat (a traditional market area) set up on Emilio Ortuño Street, where they will visit some stalls selling traditional products, before heading to the fairgrounds for the official opening of the funfair.

Likewise, the city's schoolchildren also celebrated the main festivities today, with parades, offerings, and dances at most schools. The Councillor for Fiestas, Mariló Cebreros, along with numerous members of the City Council, as well as the Festival Queens, Paula and Aitana, visited these schools to spend these pre-festival hours with the children. After this festive prelude, the Patron Saint Festivities in honour of Our Lady of Sufragio and Saint James will officially begin tomorrow, Saturday. The day will start at 10:00 a.m. at the Church of Saint James and Saint Anne, where Mass will be celebrated in honour of the patron saint. Following the Mass, the church doors will be opened for the singing of the traditional hymns to the Virgin. This will be followed by the ringing of the church bells and the entrance of the bands, which will parade through the main streets towards the Plaza de SS MM los Reyes de España (Square of Their Majesties the Kings of Spain).

The musical groups will begin arriving at this square from 1:00 p.m. onwards, when they will enter and, once assembled, will perform the festive pasodoble "Fiesta en Benidorm" (Festival in Benidorm), conducted by the composer, Maestro Rafael Doménech Pardo.

At 5:00 PM, on Poniente Beach, the Reenactment of the Discovery will take place. This event, declared a Festival of Tourist Interest of the Valencian Community, is organised by La Barqueta Cultural and Recreational Association, which this year will begin the process of having this declaration elevated to a Festival of National Tourist Interest.

In this event, which has been celebrated uninterruptedly since 1971 – except for 2020 due to the pandemic – the city commemorates the events of March 1740 related to the arrival of the image of the patron saint to the beaches aboard a ship adrift and without a crew, which was burned out of fear of the plague. The rescue of the image of the Virgin and Child from the flames and its transfer to the church, which is also reenacted after the Discovery with the traditional Pilgrimage, is the central event around which the Benidorm Patron Saint Festivities revolve.

This pilgrimage will begin at 6:30 p.m., and thousands of Benidorm residents will offer flowers to the patron saint. Following this, the festival queens, Paula and Aitana, will recite a verse and a few words, followed by the official opening address, which this year will be given by Francisco Saval Román. Finally, the president of the 2025 Festival Committee, Susana Martínez, and Mayor Toni Pérez will speak, with the latter bringing the event to a close.

Regulations

As in previous years, Benidorm City Council has designed a comprehensive plan to reinforce security, cleanliness, and the overall condition of the city during these days. It has also published the traditional regulations governing the operation of the clubs and festival venues. These regulations reiterate the prohibition on the use of firecrackers and other F1, F2, and F3 pyrotechnic devices from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., as well as between 2:00 a.m. and 10:00 a.m.

Furthermore, it stipulates that music played in peñas venues must cease completely by 4:00 a.m., while the venues themselves must close no later than 6:00 a.m.

The Patron Saint Festivities will continue with dozens of activities of all kinds until next Wednesday, November 12. The full program of events can be found on the municipal website, via the following link, as well as on all official communication channels of the Benidorm City Council.