Andorra's festes majors, the summer festivals parish by parish

A festa major is the big annual festival of a Catalan town or parish, and it’s the most direct way to see Andorra from the inside. Every parish has one, nearly all in summer, and for a few days the village square fills with concerts, communal meals and rituals repeated for generations.

The seven parishes’ calendar

Andorra Turisme publishes a joint calendar each year. In 2026 it went like this. Ordino opened the season on 3 July, Canillo celebrated from 17 to 20 July, Escaldes-Engordany from the 18th to the 26th, Sant Julià de Lòria from the 24th to the 28th and Andorra la Vella from 30 July to 3 August. Encamp and La Massana closed the summer, both from 14 to 16 August, around the Assumption.

For 2027 there were no dates as of 29 September 2026. The way I’d plan is to use 2026 as a guide and confirm in spring, as dates shift from year to year. Everything else summer offers is in Andorra in summer.

What actually happens?

Andorra Turisme sums it up as concerts, family activities, food and folk traditions, with each parish writing its own programme. The Comú d’Encamp gives a good idea of the traditional side. Its festa major, around 15 and 16 August, brings together an official mass, an homage to the parish’s most senior grandparents, fishing up at Els Cortals and a surprise rally. None of it is laid on for tourists, which is exactly why I like it. You’re a guest at someone else’s party, and a polite, curious visitor is generally welcome.

One practical point. The national working calendar lets each parish set up to four local holidays, usually tied to its festival or patron saint. On those days council offices and some services may keep different hours, even though tourist shops trade as normal. More in Andorra public holidays.

Village festivals

Below the parish festivals sits another layer, that of the villages. In Encamp parish, Pas de la Casa celebrates around St Peter’s Day, 29 June, with mass, anglers competing and everyone eating together beside the Abelletes lake. Les Bons holds its Sant Romà day every Easter Monday with caramelles singing and sardana dancing, Vila its own on Whit Monday, and Els Cortals the Sant Jaume day on 1 May, with a bus up the mountain. The Comú d’Encamp lists them all, and the parish is covered in Encamp, the Funicamp parish.

In Canillo, El Tarter marks St Peter’s in late June and finishes with fireworks, Soldeu has its festa major in July and honours its patron, St Bartholomew, every 24 August, and El Forn launched a festa major in 2025, fixed for the penultimate Saturday of September; in 2026 that was the 20th. In Ordino, Sornàs held its festival from 14 to 16 August 2026. And to the south, La Margineda in Andorra la Vella has its Barraques.

Two sanctuary days complete the picture. Sant Julià de Lòria holds its pilgrimage to Canòlich on the last Saturday of May, and Encamp makes offerings to the Virgin of Ecology on the first Saturday of June, in the open air on the Camí de les Pardines, 1.5 km from the car park near Engolasters lake. They aren’t festes majors, but they share the same spirit of neighbours gathering.

If you’re here in July or August for a festival, you can pair it with Romànic de bat a bat, when six Romanesque churches open their doors every July and August, among them Sant Joan de Caselles and Santa Coloma, with a booking line on (+376) 839 760.

Winter and the bear dances

It isn’t all summer. Canillo, for its part, used the El Vilar festival in late 2025 to bring the bear dance back to Sant Joan de Caselles, unseen there since 1942. The bear dances of Encamp and Ordino, on UNESCO’s intangible heritage list since 2022 as part of the Pyrenean bear festivities, belong to winter, and I cover them in Andorra carnival.

Choosing yours

If your trip falls in late July, you’re spoilt, as Escaldes, Sant Julià and Andorra la Vella overlap and are minutes apart by bus. In mid-August, Encamp and La Massana celebrate together, and I’d go to whichever one you’re staying in. And if only September works, the festival is the whole country’s, Andorra national day. Since nearly all of them fall in July and August, the rest of what’s on in those months is in Andorra in August and Andorra in July.