The Feria de Pentecôte is the largest of the French ferias and, for six days, turns a city of about 150,000 into something closer to Seville. Bodegas open in every courtyard and car park, peñas play in the streets through the night, the pegoulade parade opens the week, and the Roman arena — the best preserved in the world — holds corridas twice daily.
The city reports around 1.1 million participants across the week. That is a city-wide presence count accumulated over six days, not a headcount of individuals, and it should be read the way one reads a carnival figure rather than a ticketed one.
As at Arles, the bullfighting is legally protected as local tradition and politically contested every year. Visitors should understand that the arena programme and the street programme are separable: the bodegas, the parades and the music involve no bulls.
Because it is set by Pentecost, seven weeks after Easter, the dates move between late May and mid-June. Nîmes has limited accommodation for the scale; Montpellier is thirty minutes by train and is where most of the crowd sleeps.
PlanningTied to Pentecost, so it moves with Easter; a smaller feria des vendanges follows in September.