The Ascension Festival

The Ascension festival is the second most important in Santiago, after the St James festival in July, and the difference shows the moment you arrive: in July the city fills up with outsiders, and at Ascension it fills up with its own. This is the week of the cattle fair, of the octopus stalls under the oaks, and of university students about to sit their final exams. It falls in mid-May or early June depending on the year, because the date moves.

When is the Ascension festival in 2027?

The main day is Thursday 6 May 2027, and that part is settled in the way that matters for planning a trip: the city council approved it unanimously on 21 July 2026 as one of the year's two local public holidays, along with San Roque on Monday 16 August. So on that Thursday shops, schools and offices in the city close, even though it is not a holiday anywhere else in Galicia or in Spain.

The date moves every year because it depends on Easter: Ascension is the sixth Thursday after Easter Sunday. In 2027 Easter is 28 March, which puts Ascension on 6 May. In 2026 it was Thursday the 14th, and the festival ran from 13 to 17 May.

What is celebrated, and what you will actually see

Three very specific things set Ascension apart from any other festival in the city, and none of them happens in the old town:

• The Amio cattle fair, the biggest of the year in Santiago, with equestrian displays at the showground. It sits about five kilometres from the centre, in the Amio industrial estate, and it is the event the whole week grew out of.
• The octopus stalls in the Santa Susana oak grove, where the pulpeiras set up to serve pulpo á feira under the trees of the Alameda park. This is the food tradition of the festival and the reason a lot of people from the surrounding county come into town that day. For octopus the rest of the year, see the pulperías of the city.
• The fairground rides and concerts on the Alameda, plus street parades and theatre around the city. This is where the Romaría das Flores fits in, usually on the weekend.

How the week ran in 2026, to give you the shape of it

This table is the 2026 programme, not a forecast for 2027: it tells you what sort of thing happens on each day and little more. The 2027 dates will differ.

Does the botafumeiro fly on Ascension Day?

We cannot confirm it, and that is worth saying before anyone books a trip around it. Ascension appears on lists of botafumeiro solemnities as a movable feast, but the liturgical calendar the cathedral itself publishes for 2026 does not include it on either of its two possible dates, while it does list the feast of Clavijo, Pentecost and Trinity Sunday with their times. There is no published time for 2027 either.

A second detail catches people out: the civil holiday is Thursday the 6th, but the liturgical solemnity of the Ascension is transferred to the Sunday across much of Spain, which in 2027 would be Sunday 9 May. If you are coming for the censer rather than the festival, read when the botafumeiro swings and confirm the day against the cathedral's own calendar once it publishes 2027.

Finding a bed that week

2027 is a Holy Year, which changes the usual arithmetic. May is already one of the busiest months for arrivals on the Camino — in 2025 it was the second busiest, with 78,657 Compostelas — so the local festival lands on top of Holy Year pilgrim traffic. It is not St James week, but it is not an ordinary week in May either: we read it as high pressure rather than sold out, and it sits alongside the rest of the year's dates in our guide to when Santiago fills up.

If the trip is about the Camino and not the festival, the useful questions are different: which month to walk in and how many nights to book before you arrive.

Getting to the Amio fair

The showground is in the Amio industrial estate, northeast of the city and about five kilometres from the Obradoiro. It is not a walk: city buses are reinforced on fair days, and if you drive the problem is parking rather than getting there. Routes and fares are in our guide to getting around Santiago, and if you are driving, bear in mind that the old town is closed to traffic and your emissions sticker is not a key.

Source for the date and the holiday: the Santiago city council plenary decision of 21 July 2026, reported by Quincemil. The character of the festival, the Amio cattle fair and the Santa Susana octopus stalls come from the Turismo de Santiago entry, which is also what fixes the 2026 dates at 13-17 May. The 2027 days are our own estimate from the pattern of previous years and are flagged as such: the official programme is not out. Pilgrim figures come from the Pilgrim’s Office dashboard. Times and activities are indicative.