For four days a year, just over half an hour from Madrid, an entire town disappears beneath banners, shields, and dragons. El Álamo, in the southwest of the region, transforms into a massive medieval city with its Great Medieval Fair: more than two kilometers of decorated streets, hundreds of stalls, and an army of knights, jesters, witches, fauns, and fantastical creatures that lead many to compare it to a scene straight out of a TV series.
What began in 1996 as a small market with 25 artisans is now the longest-running medieval fair in Europe, designated a Festival of Regional Tourist Interest and a major highlight of Madrid’s May long weekend. For four days, from April 30 to May 3, El Álamo closes its downtown to traffic and transforms it into a 13th-century town: a route stretching nearly two kilometers, more than 200–400 artisan stalls, fabrics hanging from balcony to balcony, banners, torches, palisades, merchants’ tents, and decorations in which the residents themselves also participate, adorning homes and shops.
According to the City Council, more than 40,000 people visit daily, and in recent years, the festival has drawn over 300,000 visitors over the long weekend, with the town welcoming as many people as a medium-sized city. Sheriffs, beggars, merchants, fortune-tellers, puppeteers, and jesters roam the streets dressed in the purest medieval style, and the result is a gigantic open-air theme park where almost everyone is in costume or, at the very least, gets swept up in the atmosphere of banners and wrought iron.
Tournaments, dragons, and plenty of fantasy
If there’s one moment that could appear in a fantasy blockbuster, it’s the Grand Jousting Tournament at La Chacona bullring. Three daily performances (two on Sunday) recreate knightly battles featuring armor, lances, fire, and special effects, starring equestrian specialists and six thoroughbred horses that gallop and clash in the arena as if time had been turned back several centuries. The production, inspired by the tournaments banned by the Church in the 15th century, has become one of the fair’s greatest visual icons.
Outside the square, the entire town is a stage in constant motion: there will be parades featuring articulated dragons, mythological creatures, giants, fauns, and witches that traverse the town several times a day; falconry displays, with birds of prey soaring over the towers and Madrid Avenue; nightly fire shows, oriental dances, street theater, storytelling, and puppet shows for the little ones; and even medieval weddings—one of the hallmarks of the program—where couples (real or theatrical) say “I do” in period ceremonies.
In total, some editions have featured nearly 100 daily shows, scheduled from 11:00 a.m. to midnight, ensuring that there is always “something” happening in some corner: a sword fight in a square, a minstrel telling stories on one corner, a Celtic music group starting a dance on the next.
The Great Market and the Celtival
The fair is not just about decorations and shows: at the heart of El Álamo lies a massive medieval market with hundreds of stalls selling crafts, food, and traditional goods. There are blacksmiths, woodcarvers, leatherworkers, artisanal soap makers, costume jewelry, linen clothing, spices, Arabic sweets, bread ovens, rotisseries, and all kinds of “good food” stalls where the aroma of grilled meat, empanadas, crepes, mead, or craft beers accompanies every step.
One of the elements that gives it an almost fantasy-festival vibe is Celtival Music, a free Celtic music festival held in parallel that features around twenty concerts by folk bands, blending Irish, Breton, and Galician sounds with touches of rock and alternative music. The concerts are spread throughout the day and, above all, at nightfall, when bagpipes, violins, and percussion provide the soundtrack to a town that already seems to belong to another era.