The Sóller calendar is marked by two main Fiestas, one in mid May the other in late August.

MAY: Every year the folk of Sóller rattle their sabres, sharpen their scimitars and ready their muskets for some rowdy fun. But the event they’re celebrating was no picnic: in 1561 the town was plundered and its inhabitants very nearly sold into slavery by maurading pirates from North Africa. It was a fate suffered by many other towns in the Balearics and the wider Mediterranean during the 16th century, when the Barbary corsairs and their sea lords, the fearsome Barbarossa brothers, ruled the waves. Read more!

Generally: Second Monday of May, starting in the town square at 3pm. Pirates arrive in the port at 5pm and seize the town at 8pm. Christian victory by 9pm. Revelry follows

AUGUST Go to Sóller in August and have a hell of a time as fire-wielding demons take to the streets to celebrate the town’s patron saint, Bartholomew. Around August 24 (ask us – it could fall anywhere between the 20th and 25th!), Sóller’s normally placid square is transformed into a Breughelesque inferno, with fire pouring from the sky as a raucous legion of sharp-horned, frenzied demons – or dimonis – is unleashed upon the streets. Read more!