fair - #Cassàdestapa, portal turístic de Cassà de la Selva

The most important festival in Cassà de la Selva is the local town festival, Festa Major de la Santa Espina, which is celebrated on the third full moon of spring, 56 days after Easter.

The Festa Major are special days infused with the town spirit. Here are a few of the best activities: the marvellous Nit dels Músics, pictures on the pavement, el Cassà es vesteix de música and and the traditional dances of the giants, bigheads, and little horses. Old or Young, there is something for everyone at the Festa Major of Cassà.

The Santa Tecla Fair is known to many of the town as the little festival of Cassà, and it is celebrated in mid-September.

Over the weekend there are wonderful activities such as the Night of Cremat or the little shopkeeper fair, which is an initiative for young children to to re-sell diferent items.

Programme information at www.cassa.cat/santatecla

The history of the Santa Tecla Fair

In 1456 Cassà de la Selva was granted permission to organise two annual fairs. The day of Santa Tecla, the patron saint of helping dying people to suffer less, was chosen to mark the occasion of the little fair, or the autumn fair.

The authorization that the king gave to organise annual fairs and weekly markets was symbolic of measuring the econòmic life of a town. Normally, the two annual fairs coincided with significant farming times: one in spring and the other in autumn, in accordance with reaping and sowing. At these two times of the year, the towns were meeting points for farmers and merchants.

There are no details as to how the Santa Tecla Fair was celebrated during the first three centúries of its existence in Cassà de la Selva; however, there are documents in the town records that confirm its significance in the first years of the 20th century. The Fair was an economic model because it awarded important prizes to the best specimens of cows and horses and the best and largest herd of sheep. Regarding entertainment, there are fireworks, musical activities (La Principal and La Unión Cassense) and sporting events with races and football. The latter activity was added to the festival in 1912, the same year as the founding of the football pitch in Cassà de la Selva.

Now the Santa Tecla Fair, or the little festival of Cassà, is celebrated in mid-September. Over the last few years it has regained its former status and looks set to benefit from yet another boost along with the cork industry..

Programes de la Fira de Santa Tecla

Cassà is host to many different Markets that take place at certain times of the year.

Weekly market

Every Wednesday and Saturday from 8 to 14 h there is the weekly market which you can find on Passeig Vilaret. It holds a variety of stalls: fruit, vegetables, olives, cured meats, flowers, plants, clothes...

Sant Jordi Market

The Sant Jordi (Saint George) market take splace for the whole day in Plaça de la Coma and there are stalls for all sorts of articles related to Saint George’s Day: book-signing, children’s shows and workshops, stalls for local businesses...

It is usually held on the weekend before Saint George’s Day; however, if the 23rd April falls on a weekend, it is on the very same day.

Programme information at www.cassa.cat/santjordi

The Christmas Market

The Christmas Market is on a December weekend and here there ares talls of Christmas products, a carol concert, a competition for shop displays, activities for la Marató on TV3 and the switching on of the Christmas lights.

Programme information at www.cassa.cat/nadal

Second-hand and Exchange Market

This market takes place twice a year: in March and in November. It is an opportunity for diferent people with initiatives in favour of the 4R project: recycle, reduce, repair, and re-use. Throughout the day, the market organises various activities and presents projects in accordance with this philosophy, aside from the main stalls that allow people to Exchange and/or buy second-hand objects.

The Second-hand and Exchange Market works alongside the flea market, organisedby AFA from Aldric School and is dedicated to children.

Programme information at  www.cassa.cat/segonama

On the Sunday of the Festa Major the little ones gravitae to the plaça de la Coma for Pictures on the Pavement, one of the most popular events of the festival and which has been going on in the town since1983.

The children have a space reserved in the square in which they must draw a Picture capturin a scene from the Festa Major. A panel of judges then evaluate the pictures and choose a winner.

It was the local painter Josep Lloveras who first set up this activity and which for some years now has been organised by the town’s School of Art.