Cruces de Mayo festival in Granada
- Granada will stage its 2026 Día de la Cruz on May 2 and 3, with 53 competition entries across the city plus the municipal cross. - The official opening is set for May 2 at noon in the City Hall courtyard, where Carlos Marín López will deliver the festival address. - Granada trimmed entries from last year as officials push a family-focused format and new brotherhood category. (granadahoy.com)
Granada’s Día de la Cruz returns on Saturday, May 2, and Sunday, May 3, with 53 competition crosses across the city and a separate municipal display in Plaza del Carmen. (granadahoy.com) (turismo.granada.org) The official program says the crosses open from 12:00 p.m. Saturday until 11:00 p.m. Sunday, with festival hours running to 1:00 a.m. on Saturday night. (turismo.granada.org) City Hall’s main ceremony is scheduled for May 2 at 12:00 p.m. in the Ayuntamiento courtyard, where musician and broadcaster Carlos Marín López will give the pregón, or opening address. (europapress.es) (andaluciainformacion.es) The count is down from last year. Granada Hoy reported 53 entries for 2026, nine fewer than in 2025, even as installations remain spread through streets, patios, schools, shop windows and brotherhood spaces. (granadahoy.com) (granada.org) The festival centers on large crosses covered in flowers and framed with local decorative objects, including shawls, ceramics, copperware and Granada marquetry. A traditional “pero,” a local name for a golden apple, is often displayed with scissors to signal there should be no “buts” about the design. (granadadirect.com) (lovegranada.com) Granada’s tourism office dates the celebration to May 3, while local guides trace the custom in its current form to the 17th century. The city’s 2025 rules called it a cultural marker of Granada that draws visitors from elsewhere in Spain and abroad. (turismo.granada.org) (lovegranada.com) (granada.org) The brotherhoods are getting a bigger role this year. Granada’s federation of religious brotherhoods published a 2026 dossier on April 28 with schedules, locations and programming for the cofrade crosses on May 2 and 3. (hermandadesdegranada.com) Granada Hoy’s list shows entries from Realejo, Albaicín, Paseo de los Tristes, Plaza del Triunfo, San Antón and school courtyards across the city, underscoring how neighborhood-based the event remains. (granadahoy.com) For visitors, the practical point is simple: the main public displays are concentrated into a 35-hour window starting at noon on May 2, and the city has already published maps and location guides. (turismo.granada.org) (granadadirect.com)
