Fiestas de La Encarnación and La Manzana 2024 – Valleseco
Valleseco, the municipality of Gran Canaria famous for its apples and cider, celebrates the festival of La Encarnación and La Manzana between 22 September – 13 October 2024, a celebration of the municipality, its people, and its customs.
On the first Sunday of October, this year on October 6, the other great celebration of the municipality takes place in honour of Our Lady of the Incarnation. It is also the Apple Festival in which the neighbours come on pilgrimage with their carts from all the neighbourhoods dressed in their typical costumes to offer the Virgin the products of the land on the Saturday before the main day.
In 2011, this festival was declared a Festival of Regional Tourist Interest by the Government of the Canary Islands, hence, a list of activities has been devised to promote this municipality of the island’s medians every year.
The apple is the quintessential symbol of Valleseco. The French or Canadian pippin stands out for its quality and peculiar sweet and sour flavor. It was introduced back in 1858 by the then-mayor, who decided to recover the vacant lands of the municipality with fruit trees. Currently, the Valleseco apple serves as the basis for the production of Gran Valle Cider. In addition, it gives its name to a festival, that of the Apple, in which, among other events, a massive pilgrimage is celebrated on the eve of the main festival; a craft fair in which various artisans from the municipality exhibit and show their work to the public, ranging from carpenters, ceramists, leather and stone craftsmen, basket makers to weavers, traditional costume tailor or woodcarver; a competition of dishes made with apples and tastings of cider and other products related to this fruit. Among the events that have the most tradition within these festivals due to their prestige and wide participation, is the Abenechara Folkloric Meeting, which brings together Canarian groups from all the islands and from outside the archipelago.
Sunday 29 September: in Área Recreativa de La Laguna
From 10:15 Livestock fair with exhibitions, donkey rides and so much more
11:30 Horse race
14:00-16:00
at 10:30 Children’s workshops.
Saturday 5 October:
at 18:30 The 50th Anniversary of the Romería, pilgrimage offering
at 22:30 Zumba exhibition
at 23:00 Verbena, a festive street party with the bands Larga and Mecanika by Tamarindos
at 00:00 Fireworks spectacle
Sunday 6 October:
at 10:00 Artisan Craft Stalls in the Plaza Municipal. There will also be a stall to sell apples and cider from 10:30
at 12:00 Religious Function in Honour of Our Lady of the Incarnation, followed by a procession through the streets.
at 14:00 Popular Food: “Fabada” in the Plaza Municipal. Price: €3
at 14:00 Concerts in the Plaza Municipal: Las Chicas Melodía, Kalima Limón and Los Lola.
at 16:00 Children’s Fiesta with bouncy castles in the surrounding area of Plaza Municipal.
at 20:00 Night of humour with Kike Perez in the Plaza Municipal.
