Cheese Festival Santa María de Guía 2025
🧀 The ancient town of Santa María de Guía celebrates Fiesta del Queso, the Cheese Festival in the historic centre of Guía, Plaza Grande on Sunday 27 April, and in Montaña Alta on 4 May 2025.
🧀 Two years ago, the Guía Cheese Festival was declared a Festival of Tourist Interest in the Canary Islands.
The Festival of the Cheese of Guía counts every year with two editions. Traditionally, the first one is celebrated in the town on the last Sunday of April and the second takes place in the district of Montaña Alta every first Sunday of May.
Saturday, 26 April: Mercado de Guía
The Guía Market will host workshops for adults on tasting and evaluating cheeses with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) from the Canary Islands and premium cheeses, as well as children’s and family workshops to discover “The Magical World of Queso de Flor.”
Later that evening, the traditional “Cheese Dance” will be held in the Plaza Grande. This year, the folk groups Buchito de Café and Estrella y Guía from Gran Canaria, and the AF Herederos de Chasna from Tenerife, along with twenty other dance groups from various folk groups, will feature the cheese dance groups.
Sunday, 27 April: Main Day
On Sunday, one of the main days of this celebration, the city centre will hold the Traditional Gastronomy and Crafts Fair, with a display, tasting, and sale of cheeses and local products, from 10:00 to 14:00, in both squares of the historic centre: the front of the church and Calle Marqués del Muni.
Another important event on this day is the 26th Island Cheese Tasting Competition “Queso Flor de Guía,” starting at 11:00 at the Casa de la Cultura, with commented public tastings of the participating cheeses and cheese factories. On this day, the Néstor Álamo Museum will also host the Experience Room on the Flavors of Gran Canaria, with commented tastings of cheeses and other rural treasures. This festive day will be enlivened from eleven in the morning by the folk groups Herederos de Chasna, Los Incansables, and Noroeste Guiense.
Among this year’s new features is the change of location of one of the most popular activities, the IES Noroeste Gastronomic Showcase. This year, it moves to La Kasa de Guía, where students from the various training cycles of the Hospitality and Tourism Department will once again offer a wide variety of delicacies made with Flor de Guía, Media Flor, and Guía cheeses.
Sunday 4 May, Montaña Alta
The Cheese Festival in the Montaña Alta neighbourhood, where, as every year, the thousands of samples of sancocho, cheese, tortillas with honey, and wild mustard stew are among the main attractions to visit this area of the Guiense midlands. Day will start at 10:00.
A festive day in which the awards of the 26th Island Cheese Tasting ‘Queso Flor de Guía’ will be presented and tribute will be paid to the couple of cheese artisans Teresa González Jiménez and Juan Antonio Moren García, and to the couple formed by Carmen Santiago Díaz and Atilio Suárez Suárez, collaborators of the festival for thirty years and part of the group of people who make the famous wild mustard stew that can be tasted on this day.
The folklore groups Lairaga del Norte and Estrella y Guía will entertain on this festive day, and there will also be performances by Yeray Rodríguez and international poets.
Public transport
to Montaña Alta: the Global bus company will have a special arrangement for that day, extending the service from 10 in the morning until three in the afternoon.
See the full program (in Spanish) HERE!
