Fair and Festivities in honour of San Bartolomé, the largest celebration in Martos (Jaén). Highlights include a wide variety of activities during the pre-fair and fair days, such as sporting competitions, theatre, concerts, cultural activities, a parade, street processions and bullfighting events, including the traditional “torillo del aguardiente”.

The festivities begin with the official lighting of the fair entrance arch, and the fun is centred on the many stalls at the fairground, offering musical performances of various genres.

The Olive Festival of Martos, organised by the town's Town Hall, has been held for more than 30 years. It is a popular commemoration aimed at paying tribute to the town's olive pickers, both men and women. It is held every year on 8 December, the official start date of the olive-harvesting season.

Various cultural events are organised as part of the Olive Festival. On the 8th, following the official reception of local authorities at the Town Hall, a well-known public figure delivers the Festival's opening address; afterwards, a floral offering is made at the Monument to the Olive Pickers, a bronze sculptural group created by Constantino Unghetti and unveiled in 1982, depicting two olive-picker figures, a man and a woman, alongside an olive press and roller.

This is followed by a communal "hoyo aceitunero" (bread, oil, salt cod and olives), while the master millers of Martos extract, at the town's fairground, the year's first oil using a manual screw press. A trade fair dedicated to the olive grove is also held, showcasing the latest innovations.

In the days before and after the celebration, other parallel activities are organised, such as photography exhibitions, concerts, photography competitions, literary gatherings, sporting activities, and even a flamenco evening dedicated to olive growers at the Peña Flamenca de Martos, or a workshop on making esparto baskets.

During these days, a wide variety of sporting, cultural, entertainment, musical and traditional activities are organised, bringing the town to life. 

This is probably the oldest pilgrimage in Spain, held on the last Sunday of April. On the Sunday before the main festival week, the image is moved from the Hermitage of Jesús to the parish church of Nuestra Señora de la Paz. On Saturday morning, the streets fill with colour, song and joy as pilgrims, horses and carts pass by, making their way up to the Sanctuary of the Virgen de la Cabeza, located deep in the Sierra Morena. 

 When talking about our town's festivities, everyone knows they go by one name: Virgen del Rosario, our patron saint.

Throughout the centuries, the history of Los Villares has gone hand in hand with devotion to the Santísima Virgen del Rosario. Our people have always felt her protection, her help. Many of the town's daughters are named «Rosario».

San Juan Bautista is the patron saint of Los Villariegos. His festival is held on 23, 24, 25 and 26 June.

Each year, following tradition, it is held in a different street of the town, decorating it and filling it with festive spirit and tradition.

The Feast of Santa Bárbara, patron saint of miners, aims to revive an old commemoration once held every 4 December in our city.

Every year, the Tourism and Historical Heritage departments of Linares Town Hall are pleased to invite everyone to this festival which, as in the past, brought together the mining community of both Linares and the rest of the Comarca Norte de Jaén: mine workers, business owners, engineers, students from the School of Mines, and students from the University Polytechnic School.

Timbermen from across the Mining District would come to compete in the famous contest awarding a prize for the best mine gallery entrance built in the shortest time. Each edition includes a demonstration of this now-vanished trade, once so important for keeping the mine galleries stable. Likewise, geology enthusiasts can admire genuine treasures from our Mother Earth at the Mineral Fair.

All of this is made possible thanks to groups and individuals who selflessly contribute to making these kinds of initiatives a reality, such as the celebration of this distinctive icon of our Intangible Heritage.

Every year, Linares holds its Royal Fair and Festivities during the last week of August, always coinciding with the feast of San Agustín on 28 August, and ending on 1 September.
The Linares fair is, without doubt, one of the most important in Spain for the quality of its theatrical shows, the calibre of the leading national and international musical performers, and the numerous competitions, sporting events, exhibitions and concerts organised.

The prestigious “Ciudad de Linares” National Tarantas Competition is held the week before, bringing the leading names in flamenco singing to the city. In addition, the bullfighting fair is one of the most important and well-known in the country. Its bullring has witnessed memorable afternoons in the history of bullfighting, such as the afternoon of 28 August 1947, when the great bullfighter Manuel Rodríguez “Manolete” was fatally gored.

On San Blas's day, it is customary to light bonfires the night before, although the tradition of “playing the flag” in front of the saint as he is carried in procession has been lost. Whoever performed these distinctive flag-juggling moves aimed, after precise and eye-catching movements, to end with the flag fully wound around the pole, finishing with cheers for San Blas, echoed by everyone present.

On this day, the saint's traditional rosquillas are handed out, believed by popular tradition to protect anyone who eats them from throat ailments for the following year. A rather curious feature is the long-standing rivalry between La Puerta and Beas over possession of the image of San Blas. Tradition holds that it was found on 10 February 1565 by farmhands Juan José Sánchez, from Beas, and Antonio Ramírez, from La Puerta. The former claimed it for his town, having touched it first, while the latter maintained it belonged to his, since it had been found within his town's boundaries.

This gave rise to numerous rituals and disputes; one rather peculiar custom, once the image was settled in La Puerta, was the obligation of the so-called festival commissioners from both towns to provide the stewards organising the festival each year with a supply of wine, bread and meat for charitable distribution, two “celemines” of flour to make buñuelos, and a further three of toasted chickpeas to be handed out among all those attending.

Over time, other festive elements have been added to the ritual of San Blas, closely linked to the feast of the Purification of Mary — 2 February — which precedes it, such as the large amount of gunpowder used to make the celebration a truly thunderous affair.

Another custom, now vanished, was to bless the “caridad”, or bread to be given to the poor, on the eve of San Antón, and to light bonfires in the saint's honour.

On that day, children would go from house to house around the town asking for the “sanantón” — a kind of final Christmas gift — making themselves heard by ringing cowbells or banging frying pans and other kitchen utensils that could make noise. The saint was accompanied in procession to his hermitage amid the din of this monumental “cencerrada”.

On 16 July, the patron saint festivities are held in honour of the Virgen del Carmen, during which it is also a well-established mountain tradition for young men to run with young bulls.