Santo Tomás Fair 2026 in Bilbao

What Santo Tomás is in Bilbao

On 21 December Bilbao sets up a one-day farmers' fair right in the centre. The origin is the same as in Donostia: it was the date when tenant farmers came down from the hills to pay their rent to the landowner and stayed on to sell the year's surplus. In Bilbao the fair has been held in the Plaza Nueva since 1915, according to the Basque Museum, and has spread outwards from there.

Worth saying up front so nobody is disappointed: this is not a Christmas market. No decorations, no mulled wine, no funfair rides. It is a produce fair — cheese, beans, txakoli, vegetables, txistorra — eaten in the street.

Opening times and location

The bulk of the fair is on the Paseo del Arenal and its Tinglados, with the Plaza Nueva as its historic core, rounded out by Plaza del Arriaga, San Nicolás and, since 2023, a zone on calle Bailén. The 2024 edition had 235 stalls and 121 producers, making it the biggest of the day.

In recent years opening hours have run 9am to 8pm, with the official opening at around 10.30am at the Arenal bandstand. Those are figures from recent editions, not confirmed 2026 hours: the city council publishes them in December.

What to eat and what to buy

• Talo con txistorra. The dish of the day. A corn flatbread cooked on a griddle, wrapped around a fresh grilled sausage. Eaten standing up.
• Idiazabal cheese bought straight from the shepherd. This is the best moment of the year to do it, because the producers are there in person rather than the middlemen.
• Txakoli and cider, the traditional accompaniments.
• Beans and winter vegetables, and pastries.

If you are serious about buying cheese or beans, go early: small producers bring a limited quantity and the good stuff sells out.

Practical advice

• Cash. Many farms do not carry a card reader, and phone signal in the crowd is patchy.
• Avoid 1pm to 3pm. That is when El Arenal becomes impassable and txistorra queues stretch to half an hour. At 9.30am or 6pm you eat the same thing without the suffering.
• Metro, not car. The centre is closed to traffic and the car parks fill up.
• It is a Monday and a working day. The fair is a daytime affair: by 8pm it is being packed away.

The same day in Donostia

Donostia holds its own Santo Tomás fair on 21 December, centred on the Plaza de la Constitución. If you are closer to there, it is exactly the same festival.

The programme and final 2026 opening hours will be published by the city council in the weeks beforehand; as soon as they reach our sources they will appear at the top of this page.