Fiestas de la Virgen Blanca

At six on the evening of 4 August, a doll called Celedón — a Basque peasant with an umbrella — slides down a wire from the tower of San Miguel into the Plaza de la Virgen Blanca, where a man dressed identically emerges from the crowd to complete the illusion. Everyone lights a cigar, opens a bottle of cava and puts on the blue smock of the blusas, and the fiesta runs to the ninth, when Celedón goes back up.

The tradition dates from 1957; the fiestas themselves from the nineteenth century.

No attendance figure is recorded here in this pass.

The dates are fixed at 4–9 August. Vitoria is the Basque administrative capital, compact and green, with a modest hotel stock entirely taken for the week; Bilbao is forty minutes away by road.

PlanningFixed on 4–9 August, opening at six in the evening on the fourth with the Celedón's descent.