Pineda de Mar Town Festival (Festa Major)

This is Pineda de Mar saying goodbye to summer in the loudest way it knows how. Over four days in late August the town centre and seafront fill with more than fifty separate happenings, and the best of them are gloriously old-school. There's a correfoc, where costumed devils run through the streets trailing sparks while you dodge the showers (wear something you don't mind scorching). Giant figures parade past, and down on Platja dels Pescadors the fishermen still hold a fish auction on the sand, followed by a communal sardinada with the smell of grilled sardines drifting across the beach.

Stick around in the evenings for havaneres, the old Catalan sea songs sung over glasses of burnt rum, plus a foam party and the Festa Jove concerts that keep the younger crowd going until dawn. Most of it is free. It's properly local, not laid on for tourists, which is exactly why it's worth a look.