Sant Roc Festival - Fire Bulls and Traditional Songs
El Puig's biggest summer fiesta in honour of Sant Roc, running through August with the main days on the 15th and 16th. Highlights include 'bous embolats' (fire bulls), the Nit d'Albaes with traditional sung verses, a floral offering, processions, fireworks and open-air dinners and dances.
El Puig pulls out all the stops for its patron saint each August, with most of the action landing on the 15th and 16th. The headline draw is the bous embolats: bulls with flaming horns let loose through barricaded streets on Saturday nights, the crowd pressed into doorways and railings. It's loud, fast and not for everyone, but the energy is real. Come the evening of the 15th, the old town quietens for the Nit d'Albaes, when locals sing traditional verses to the dolcaina pipes and drums.
There's a softer side too. A floral offering threads through the historic quarter behind the town band, and on the 16th the saint's image is carried out in a solemn procession through the streets. Nights end with fireworks, open-air discos and shared dinners of magre amb tomata, lean pork cooked down with tomato, put on by the clavaris who run the fiesta. Most of it is free and out in the street.