Feria de Abril Guide – How to enjoy the Seville Feria like a local

Your Seville Feria de Abril Guide

Updated May 2025

✨ Planning your 2025 Seville trip? Feria de Abril is happening May 6-11. Get ready for an unforgettable cultural experience! 💃🏽

The Feria is an event that forever leaves its mark. When I think about it, it still brings a smile to my face. This is an occasion that more than answers the question, Why visit Seville? I was told by various Sevillanos that you either hate or you love Feria, and that’s that. It’s not for everyone, and not everyone in Seville is thrilled about attending Feria. The enthusiasm that goes into this single week of activity is something incredible to behold. If you have ever dreamed of attending the Feria and wish you had a local’s Seville Feria guide, then you have come to the right place.

Seville does not miss a Feria de Abril! After 2 long years without a Feria due to COVID, you can only imagine how hungry the city was for this fiesta’s return. This week-long, multiple-block party that would put off any introvert as much as it would delight the party animals in your life is a tradition that started quite differently and for a different purpose, but I’ll have to go into that in another post. 

So what’s the deal with the love/hate relationship with Feria, which always falls 10 days after the end of Semana Santa? To present you with two contrasts, I have a friend whose spouse would not set foot anywhere near the Feria. She can go off dancing the Sevillanas as much as she likes, but he won’t be in attendance, not even for 1 minute. On the other extreme, I have another friend who is a “socio” (member) of a caseta and after paying a whopping 1200 euros/year for this privilege to attend Feria in one of the many private casetas, he very much intended to spend every single day there from sometime in the late afternoon (more like evening), until almost 5 am only to turn back around and return again.  Completely nuts to some, and absolutely amazing to others. 

We were very lucky to have been invited to not one but three private casetas. You will hear it said by many locals that if you want to really enjoy the Feria, you need to have a friend who has a caseta. Why, you may ask? Well, the tents (the casitas) in the Sevilla Feria are mostly private. While there are a number of public ones that you can enter freely, any private casita would have a “bouncer” at the door verifying that you are indeed meant to be there, so you’ll see people outside the “club” waving to their friends who are inside enjoying their rebujitos. I’m told that other Ferias throughout Spain are not quite as elitist, but I got my golden ticket, so I’m not going to worry about that. No, actually, we also went to two public casetas, one was quite large and crowded, and the other much less so, and it was fine. Both of these occasions were during the day, so not quite as rowdy as it can get as the night drags on. For a list of suggested public casetas, read through to the end of this post – patience is everything.

I thought that I could share with you today my tips on how to successfully navigate the Feria so that if you are here next year or the year after, you can enjoy the festivities because, frankly, you should see it at least once. 

Seville Feria de Abril Guide: First things first – Navigation

Download the Feria grounds map. This place is huge, like a mini-city within the city. Currently, the Feria grounds are located in the barrio of Los Remedios between the Puente de San Telmo & the Parque de Los Principes. The streets are all named after famous bullfighters, and each caseta has a number, so if you still remember how to read a map, you’re good. This was the map for 2023 from ABC Sevilla and should still be the same even as you are reading this, but you can also check out any updates here for 2025. Each caseta has an address, a number, and a street name. Using the map, you can find the caseta name and then find its number on the map so you get yourself dropped off at the most logical entrance, so you are not walking forever! Whatever year you are coming, just Google Plano feria de Sevilla, and off you go to the races. 

At the extremity of the Feria grounds is a street very aptly named, Calle del Infierno; on the other side of this street is the gigantic amusement park. If you come here later in the evening, be prepared – you will NOT be alone. 

Feria de Seville Guide’s Dress for Success

So, no, you don’t have to have a Feria dress, but maybe try not to stick out like a sore thumb either and dress in your “31’s”, as the French say, or your “Sunday best”, if you will. In the daytime, it can be more casual, but even then, you will see some glamorous flamenco-style dresses. At night, it is a whole other game. Come to be impressed and impress those around you. If you do a great job, don’t be surprised if someone takes your photo. 

Options for Flamenco dresses include renting a dress. This article (in Spanish) gives you some of the locations, both online and offline, from where you would rent a dress for the occasion, because why not?  

Some of the advantages of the feria dresses are that in the ample bottoms, there is space to put a hidden pocket. I had two such pockets in my dress. One that was included when the dress was originally made and another that I had put in, so I was able to be handbag free (and you want to try to be as handbag free as possible or wear a bag with a long strap that you can put across your body over one shoulder (ladies, you get what I mean). I was able to hold my phone, a small set of keys, cash, and a credit card in a slim case, and even my selfie stick, hand cream, & hand sanitizer. And then you have the guy with you whose pockets you can fill with whatever else you need.

Another dress tip: While they look sexy, those close-fitting dresses are quite some work when nature calls, so if you are not prepared to remove the dress entirely in the tiny, questionably clean restrooms, I suggest not going overboard here.

Accessories – many of the tourist shops (and local shops) have tons of accessories that magically come out in the weeks leading up to Feria. You may see people carrying their dresses in with them to pick just the right color combo for their flowers, earrings, and other items to make them stand out as the belle of the ball. I took a photo of my dress only to discover that the photos of one of the colors were completely different than reality. I eventually went back with a color palette in hand. A pleasant discovery was that much of my mother’s jewelry from over 40 years ago also paired nicely. 

Footwear Survival Kit

So, while flamenco dancing shoes may indeed have you looking the part, the best advice that I was given for footwear options was to wear espadrilles or alpargatas – those casual canvas or cotton shoes that are super flexible and have a jute or fiber rope sole. You’ll see many ladies sporting those. Don’t go wasting tons of money on those, you can find shoes that will work for as little as 10 euros! 

Feria de Abril Guide: Learn the Sevillanas

As Feria approaches, you will see advertisements in groups like Expat Sevilla of various people offering Sevillana classes. Watch a YouTube video if you can’t make a crash course. In the end, fake it till you make it. You may not know all the moves, but the dancing turned out to be less formal than I thought it would be. People danced between tables and chairs, on the street, and just about everywhere else. There are 4 pasos to the Sevillanas, and while I did take a few lessons, only the first paso stayed in my head. All the same, I danced (a little). At the end of the night, if you have made it that far, the music moves from Sevillanas to club music in just about every caseta I passed.  So you just need to make it that far – good luck! 

Some Sevillana music to get used to the rhythm 

Tutorial with music (yup, the men dance too).

Feria de Abril Guide: Be prepared!

What happens if you are invited to a caseta? Even if you are not a local, it could happen. Say you have this gorgeous flamenco dress on and someone on the street says, “Hey! I have a caseta! You should come!”  The unspoken rule is that if you are invited to someone’s caseta, you buy them a rebujito to say thank you. The thing about the caseta invites is that sometimes, you are INVITED, meaning your host is not expecting you to pay. Other times, you are “invited”, and you pay your tab at the bar as you go. When in doubt, assume you need to pay and have both cash and a card handy. Rebujito is THE drink of the Feria in Andalusia. Don’t be surprised if you can only get it in a large pitcher with tiny cups to help you make it last. I noticed that depending on the caseta, the amount of alcohol (Manzanilla) used differed greatly – so don’t say I didn’t warn you. A few of those, and you’ll forget that you don’t know how to dance the Sevillana.

Want to prep your Tapas knowledge before having to place your order? Check out these 25 tapas you have to try next time you are in Andalusia.

When to go and have some fun

When to head to the Feria depends on what kind of party animal you are. Attending Feria with kids is very possible. If the kid is Spanish, they could probably last until the 5 am finish as my friend’s 11-year-old daughter did (CRAZY!!!), but our son is not being raised on full-on Spanish time, so we did the following: 

Day 1 – We went to the Feria at about 12 PM because no Sevillano was going to be out at 12 PM. Kidding, there were a few, but frankly, not many. If you want to eat at the Feria and you don’t have an exactly planned rendez-vous, I suggest arriving just before the locals generally dine, so before 1 or 2 PM. Once we ate in an almost empty public caseta, we took Remi and his friend to the amusement park. Also, by day and at 3 PM, when the Sevillanos are sitting down to eat, the amusement park was not that crowded, so they actually got to go on a few rides. It was hot as Hades, but hey, we had our bottled water!

After dropping Remi and his friend off at the other parent (did you catch on to my devilish plan yet), we took a short break before returning back to the Feria grounds as we were invited for the adults-only evening which ended at 3 or 4 in the morning after a number of rebujitos, a few tapas, a bit of dancing, running into some friends looking for a caseta, and buñelos! Ah yes, it’s not Feria until you have ended with some delicious (but overpriced) buñelos and chocolate made by the gitanos (not a derogatory term in Spain). We truly got the full experience. Just remember to have cash!

We were not die-hard Feria-goers this time. It took us 1.5 days to recover from our late-night fiesta – I simply don’t know how the Spaniards do it. Friends who have been waiting for this moment for 2 years attended, if not every single evening of the Feria (and still managed to make it to work), did attend most of it. 

A finale to light up the night sky

The finale of Feria is a fireworks show that answers the question as to why they don’t do fireworks on New Year’s Eve – They couldn’t possibly have any more to spare. At exactly midnight on the last day of the Seville Feria, the city was treated to a spectacular fireworks display. We found perfect viewing spots on the Triana Bridge where we enjoyed the show with two clients who booked a private food tour with us. I jokingly told them that this was all part of the package 😉. I was not the only one to use this magic moment to their advantage; up above us on the Mariatrifulca restaurant’s perched terrace, a guy decided this was the time to ask his lady love for her hand in marriage in full view of 1/2 of Seville – thankfully, she said yes. 

Costs

Look, I won’t lie to you, it is not cheap attending Feria. Friends have given me tricks like eating before you go and carrying a bottle of water, etc., but we wanted to leave the Feria at least this time. Some casetas serve up a huge amount of food, so you don’t need to over-order. You can always go back. Yes, you may wait a long time, but 1 media + 2 cervezas to start is not bad. Some say it will cost you 100 euros per day, others say more like 202 euros (not sure where the extra two come from). I’ve heard that people save up for Feria or even take out loans. What a cultural eye-opener. No wonder the Feria rakes in over 900 million euros for the city!!!!! 

Now that you are Feria savvy, here’s my take on some handy items to have in your “Feria survival kit”:

Items to have on hand:

Crazy glue – this one was a funny discovery. I didn’t have any, but while enjoying the invitation of one of our friends in the private caseta, his wife arrived and informed us that her espadrilles had already fallen apart even before she had made it inside. At that exact moment, I thought, mental note, carry some crazy glue (or some small nails and a hammer, but the glue is probably easier).

A packet of tissues – I was lucky, in all the times I went to the restroom in either the public or private casetas (and my Spanish teacher and others had given me such a fright about this that I almost didn’t even try to go), I did not encounter one that did not have toilet paper – but it can happen. Heck, it happens in restaurants, so pack some tissues.

Hand sanitizer – pandemic or not, this is good to have because while the toilet paper may have been restocked, not always the case for the hand soap. 

An abanico (a hand-held fan) – Not only will you look elegant if it is accessorized to your outfit, but it can be helpful when inside a crowded caseta or just walking down the street.  

Water – What is it about Spain where the temperatures can get quite high, and getting water? Sure, you can ask for water, and maybe you get a small, really small, glass, or you spring for the bottled water, but I found it was faster getting cervezas and rebujitos than the bottle of water. I did not bring my bottle, but if you do, one of those thermal bottles that keep the liquid cold for 24 hours and hot for 12 can be really handy. Probably won’t fit into your hidden pocket though 

A handbag that you can throw across your shoulder – if you are not lucky enough to have hidden pockets in your flamenco dress or a lovely partner who is willing to carry a backpack for you, this will be handy, and if you are even luckier, you’ll have it match your dress perfectly.

A bit of cash – while many take cards, a few only wanted cash, so it’s a good idea to have some on hand, especially if you need to be treating someone to a few rounds of rebujitos.

Want some more Feria highlights? Please have a look at my videos here and check out our friends, the AG3 Family, on their YouTube channel as they share yet another adventure of an African American family living and traveling abroad.

Feria de Seville Guide: Final words

When I first wrote this post in 2022, Feria de Abril had just wrapped up on May 8th. You might be wondering why I’m still talking about it now in 2025. First, it was a well-earned recap — but more importantly, Feria planning never really stops in Seville. Just days after one Feria ends, locals are already thinking about the next. And sure enough, the portada for 2025 — the grand entrance to the fairgrounds — has already been selected. This year’s design is a tribute to the Capilla del Carmen, an iconic Mudéjar-style chapel in Triana. The structure will feature more than 25,000 bulbs and stand over 40 meters wide and nearly 38 meters tall. So, whether it’s your first Feria or your fifth, consider this your sign to start planning early. ¡Viva la Feria!

Public Casetas – 2025 List + My Recommended Picks

As I mentioned earlier, most of the over 1,000 casetas at the Seville Feria are private — you’ll need to know a socio (member) or get an invite. But that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the festivities if you’re not on the guest list. Each year, the city publishes a list of public casetas, and for 2025, here they are:

• Distrito Triana–Los Remedios (Pascual Márquez 153–157)

• Distrito Casco Antiguo (Antonio Bienvenida 97–101)

• Distrito Nervión–San Pablo (Costillares 22–26)

• Distrito Sur–Bellavista (Ignacio Sánchez Mejías 61–65)

• Distrito Este–Alcosa (Pascual Márquez 215–219)

• Distrito Macarena–Norte (Pascual Márquez 85–89)

• Distrito Cerro–Amate (Juan Belmonte 196–200)

• Área de Fiestas Mayores (Costillares 13)

• UGT (Antonio Bienvenida 13)

• CCOO (Pascual Márquez 81)

• Unión Sindical Obrera (Curro Romero 25)

• Partido Popular (PP) (Pascual Márquez 66)

• La Marimorena (Manolo Vázquez 31) – vegan- and lactose-free friendly

• La Pecera (Pascual Márquez 9)

• El Garbanzo Negro (Manolo Vázquez 33)

• Caseta del Turista (Pascual Márquez 225–229) – reservasferia@mercadodelbarranco.com

💃 My 2025 Recommendations:
Of the public options, I personally recommend:

• CCOO

• UGT

• Nervión–San Pablo

• Distrito Casco Antiguo

• Partido Popular (PP)

• La Marimorena (vegan/lactose-free food available)

• Caseta del Turista

These were welcoming, vibrant, and easy to enjoy without feeling like you were crashing someone’s private party. If you’re unsure where to begin, these are solid bets — especially for daytime visits.

Have you been to the Feria de Sevilla? What was your experience like? Let me know in the comments. How did this compare to other festivals you have attended in Spain?

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