Les Festes del Tura refers to Olot’s main town festival - one of the most important celebrations in la Garrotxa area and the whole of Catalonia. The festival is named after the patron saint of the city: Our Lady of Tura. The festival is celebrated around the September 8, and is one of the most visited festivals to take place at the end of summer.
Its outdoor events and concerts attract a huge audience from the area and, indeed, from the entire country. Most of the activities take place within the city, especially in the old town, where you can enjoy traditional events such as the ball de gegants, nans i cavallets (a dance of traditional Catalan processional giants and hobby horses), in the Plaça Major. The principal giants are authentic sculptural works, and are the most emblematic figures of the festival.
The most anticipated event takes place at noon on The Day of Our Lady of Tura, when the town’s main square fills with people who come to watch the giants and hobby horses dance to the sound of the cobla - a traditional Catalan orchestra - following a solemn, repetitive rhythm that everybody is familiar with. There are also other traditional activities such as revetlles (open-air celebrations to mark the eve of the saint’s day), sardanes (the national Catalan dance), the popular tornaboda (a farewell event to wind down the festivities), and the correbou (bull running).
All the troupes of players and performers from Olot’s neighbourhoods – including its giants, folkloric beasts and so-called capgrossos (“big-heads”) – also come together for Olot’s mass cercavila procession, in which they parade the city’s streets.
At night, the Turinada night-time procession and street party is one of the busiest and most popular events. This is a procession that crosses through the centre of Olot, ending at the Carrer del Tura, where the Ball de l’Hora party then takes place with lots of noise, water and giant balloons. Other nocturnal activities include the correfoc fire-run, the Batalla de les flors flower parade and the Llançament de Pinyol d’Oliva (olive-stone spitting competition).
Together, all these activities make the Festes del Tura one of the highlights of Catalonia’s popular-culture and festive calendar. Its prestige is demonstrated by the fact that in 1996 it was declared a Traditional Festival of National Interest, and in 2010 Heritage Festival of National Interest.