Pedraza needs no introduction. An hour and a half by car from Madrid, this small town in Segovia has served as the setting for a wide variety of audiovisual works. From Orson Welles’ film Mr. Smith. Arkadin (1955) to Álex de la Iglesia’s series 30 Monedas (2020) or the controversial 2013 lottery TV ad starring such well-known faces as Montserrat Caballé, Raphael or Marta Sánchez. And, for more than three decades, it has also been the setting for one of the most special events of the summer season: the Night of the Candles in Pedraza.
The Night of the Candles in Pedraza is actually a couple of nights. This 2024, specifically, those on Saturdays, July 6 and 13. It is an annual event that, as its name suggests, fills this small town with more than 60,000 candles at sunset. An original way to welcome the summer, which is also accompanied by music: every year they hold two classical concerts, one per weekend.
The night of the candles of Pedraza, a celebration with a very curious history
The fact that Pedraza is filled with candles every summer is the result of the ingenuity of an entire town. It was 31 years ago, when the neighbors wanted to fix the organ of the church of San Juan Bautista, the temple that presides over the main square of the village. The repair was expensive and there was not enough budget for it, so among all the neighbors they thought of an initiative to collect some money.
The winning proposal was to make a concert with a few candles in the parade ground of the castle. An event with little influx of people that would make them make earn some money so that the organ would work again. Like when a school holds a dance at the end of the school year in order to finance the school trip.
The concert was so popular that the following year many people asked to organize it again. Thus, this dynamic began to take hold summer after summer. Now, the guest bands are bigger, the number of candles amounts to more than 60,000 and hundreds of people from the surrounding area move every year to this Segovian town of just 300 inhabitants to enjoy a magical night.
How, when and where to enjoy this evening
Pedraza is one of the best preserved medieval villages in the country and its cobbled streets and squares hide centuries and centuries of history. It is located about 130 kilometers from Madrid city center -an hour and a half by car- and is a perfect weekend plan if you are looking for a bucolic getaway. Even more so when the Night of the Candles in Pedraza takes place.
This 2024, the Night of the Candles in Pedraza will be held on two contiguous Saturday nights: July 6 and 13. In order to ensure the safety of visitors and avoid crowds, the capacity is limited to 5,000 people, so it will not be possible to enter the interior of the village without a ticket. Tickets have different prices, depending on the place you want to occupy when enjoying the concert. All the information can be found in the villa de Pedraza Foundation website.
Candlelight concerts, the alternative in Madrid to Pedraza’s Night of the candles
In Madrid, although there is no similar tradition, we can find moving candlelight concerts in various impressive locations. All of them, together with Candlelight, the series of concerts by candlelight that pays tribute to the greats of classical and contemporary music.
From Vivaldi or Tchaikovsky to Ed Sheeran bad Bunny or La Oreja de Van Gogh, as well as Tributes to the soundtracks most acclaimed, Candlelight has concerts for all possible musical tastes. The tickets are now available and there are plenty to choose from!