Colombinas Festival

The Colombinas commemorate the departure of the three caravels that set sail for the Indies in 1492: every 3 August Huelva celebrates the start of that voyage, a commemorative date for Spain and the Americas. It is the city's main festival and 3 August is a local holiday.

In 2012 the festival opened a new fairground with an area for marquees, a concert space and an amusement park. Each edition is dedicated to an institution or a town: in 2026, to Palos de la Frontera for the centenary of the Plus Ultra flight, with an entrance arch reproducing the one the city built in calle Concepción in 1926 to welcome the aviators. That year a new concert area of about 18,000 square metres also opened on land of the former Tiro de Pichón, the first step towards opening the fairground to the estuary.

At the Recinto Colombino, beside the estuary, near the Nuevo Colombino stadium. It has an area of marquees on streets named after places in Huelva, the concert area, the amusement park, the Municipal Marquee and the Exhibition Marquee by the entrance arch. Since 2026 there has been a pedestrian entrance from the Paseo de la Ría.

According to the City Council, walking is best: from the centre, along avenida José Luis García Palacios, it is just over a kilometre. EMTUSA runs a special Colombinas bus service stopping opposite the entrance arch, where there is also a taxi rank. For cars there are paid car parks and a free one for people with reduced mobility (2024 information).

All the marquees are free to enter, a sign of Huelva's open character, and they serve white prawns, wedge clams, fried fish and fried cuttlefish. The typical drink is ponche colombino, made with white wine from the Condado with cinnamon and peach. Concerts on the main stage are free.

The festival opens with the lighting test and the switching-on of the entrance arch, with fireworks, and there is a Children's Day with cheaper rides. The bullfighting fair at La Merced bullring, the Trofeo Colombino football tournament and sailing and nautical competitions complete the programme.