Tejeda, one of the most beautiful villages in Spain, has officially announced the suspension of the Almond blossom festivities 2022. For decades, the festival has taken place during the first weekend of February but for the second consecutive year, after months of working on the elaboration and planning and despite the effort to adapt the event to the COVID regulations, given the rate of contagion and the current situation of the pandemic, it was finally decided to postpone to 2023. The Almond Blossom Festival in Tejeda is one of the most iconic mountain celebrations of the blooms that herald the arrival of Spring. In 2021, the 50th anniversary of the festivities was postponed to this year and now to 2023.
The Almond Blossom Festival in Tejeda was the first of its type, established on the island of Gran Canaria during the twentieth century, and one of the first in the entire archipelago. The vast majority of the festivities that are celebrated on the Canary Islands take place in spring and summer, with the notable exception of carnival which is celebrated towards the end of wintertime. The flowering of the almond trees in the middle of winter, most years as January ends and on into February, heralds the imminent arrival of Spring and, for the communities of the island’s summits, makes the Almendros in Bloom perhaps the most important “pagan” celebration of the island’s flowering fields.
Previous celebrations of “Fiesta del Almendro en Flor, Tejeda”, have seen countless people head up the mountains to Tejeda, from all around the island, from other islands, from mainland Spain as well as from abroad. The festival, which started as a party, organised by young locals, “Tejedenses” to celebrate this most colourful time of the year, was first called “Pum 70”. However this annual tradition was renamed in 1971 to its current name and has grown over the years in unimaginable ways, becoming what is today a benchmark in terms of “Esencia de Canariedad”, the essence of canarianism, expressed through traditional folk music, dance, food, crafts and local Canarian tradtional sports and activities.
This Almond Blossom Festival in Tejeda was declared a Festival of Regional Tourism Interest on January 10, 2014 and at the end of 2021, declared of National Tourist Interest.
Even if there are no public events happening this year, the almond trees blossoming up in the mountains nevertheless daub the beautiful spring scenery with an explosion of colours, in an experience most definitely worth the drive along some of the islands oldest roads.
