Zarautz Big Week 2027

What Zarautz's Aste Nagusia is

Zarautz has one of the best beaches in Gipuzkoa and, in mid-August, its Aste Nagusia: the town's big week, with the programme split between the old quarter, the square and the sand. This is not an inland festival moved to the coast — the sea is built into the programme, and the rowing races prove it.

Don't confuse it with the other two big dates in Zarautz's year: San Pelaio, on 26 June, which is a local public holiday, and the Euskal Jaiak in September, Basque festivities with a character of their own.

When it is and how it opens

Aste Nagusia falls in mid-August, around the 15th. In the 2025 edition it ran from the 14th to the 17th, with the rowing races the following weekend, which is the usual shape: the heavy week first, the regattas afterwards.

The programme opens with giants and big-heads accompanied by brass bands. On the main day there is mass and a salve at the church of Santa María la Real, with the Schola Cantorum.

The three moments that define it

• Fireworks over the beach, on the night of 15 August. You can see them from anywhere on the sand, and it is by far the busiest event of the week.
• The concerts at the Malecón, from 11pm. It is the town's big stage, right by the water.
• The trainera rowing races, the following weekend. If you have never seen a Cantabrian trainera regatta, this is a good first time: you watch from the beach and it costs nothing.

In between, the programme fills out with bertsolaris, rural sports, theatre, children's activities and open-air dances.

If you are coming from outside

• Don't bring a car. Zarautz in August, with a full beach and the festival on top, has no parking. There is a Euskotren station on the line linking Donostia and Bilbao, and that is by far the sensible way to arrive.
• The whole town is walkable. It is a few minutes from the station to the beach, and the entire programme sits inside that radius.
• Book ahead if you are sleeping there. It is the busiest week of the year on the Gipuzkoa coast.
• With children, the morning giants and the rowing races go down best; the fireworks, if they can stay up.

Nearby, on those same days

August is the fullest month in the Basque calendar. Bilbao's Aste Nagusia and Donostia's Quincena Musical fall on the same dates, and the Zarautz agenda has what is on in town the rest of the year.

The final programme is published by the council in the preceding weeks. As soon as our sources pick it up, the individual events will appear at the top of this page.