Milk-fed kid goat and goat cheese, served along a route of bars and country inns, in April rather than in high summer.
Casares is a white village in western Malaga province whose festival calendar is published month by month by the Ayuntamiento de Casares. 6 of its dates crowd into August, and the two nobody else can copy fall on 28 February and 5 July, the birthday of Blas Infante, whom the council calls the “father of the Andalusian homeland”. On 5 July it hands out 3 Premios Solidarios at the Centro Cultural Blas Infante, and the gastronomic date sits in the Semana Cultural of April, not in high summer.
What is there to see in Casares? Six separate events crowd into August, starting with the village fair on the first weekend, four days in the old town. The two dates no other village can hold are 28 February and 5 July, in the birthplace of Blas Infante. April brings the food route built on milk-fed kid goat and Payoya goat cheese.
Kid goat and Payoya cheese, in April
The gastronomic date here is not a summer one. It sits inside the Semana Cultural of April, and the council describes it by produce and by breed. Its coastal neighbour is covered in what to see in Manilva.
It is “a gastronomic route through bars, restaurants and country inns of Casares offering dishes made with milk-fed kid goat and goat cheese, with the aim of promoting the Payoya breed native to the Serranía de Ronda”.
That kid goat carries a guarantee mark of its own, set out in Malaga milk-fed kid goat, and the cheese completes a mountain larder that recurs across the inland comarcas.
The same Semana Cultural runs in Casares and in Secadero, with poetry events, a book day, a dance day and sports programming alongside the food.
The same April holds the provincial circuit race, with two long events of 24 km and 12 km and, for children, an urban course of 1,000 and 500 metres.
The pilgrimage down to the Genal river
On the last weekend of May the village walks out with its patron, the Virgen del Rosario del Campo, to a chapel beside the Genal river.
The council adds why that spot: it is the “place where, according to tradition, she was found by farm labourers”. It also describes the romería as the occasion that brings back those who live away.
That river gives its name to the chestnut woods in the Genal valley in autumn.
The calendar, month by month
| Kind of event | When | Where |
|---|---|---|
| Civic | 28 February and 5 July | Old town, around Blas Infante |
| Religious | Holy Week and second weekend of September | Old town |
| Pilgrimage | Last weekend of May | Chapel by the Genal |
| Food and culture | April | Casares and Secadero |
| Fair | First weekend of August | Old town, four days |
| Seaside | 23 June and 15 August | Playa Ancha and the coast |
| Christmas | 8 December onwards | All three centres |
Grouped by kind rather than by date, the table shows what the village offers a visitor. The council’s full list runs longer, and the spread has one practical consequence: August holds 6 separate events, more than any other month.
Among them the fair, the 15 August day on the coast, the August cultural programme across all three centres, a street race, a horror trail at the end of the month and the end-of-summer party on the beach.
It is an almost continuous calendar, the opposite of the Axarquía villages, where six months of the year have no entry at all.
Holy Week, day by day
It is programmed by the Hermandad de la Virgen del Rosario del Campo, and the council publishes the sequence of the whole week.
It opens on Palm Sunday. On Holy Wednesday the via crucis and the Cristo de la Buena Muerte go out. On Thursday the Cristo de Medinaceli processes.
Good Friday is, in the council’s own words, “the most awaited by the people of Casares”, with the Virgen de los Dolores and the Santo Sepulcro. On Easter Sunday morning comes the santo encuentro.
For the provincial framework of those days there is Holy Week in Malaga.
Two dates that can only happen here
The council calls Blas Infante the “father of the Andalusian homeland”, and from that come two marked days no other municipality can replicate.
The first is 28 February, Andalusia Day. The council describes it as “a very special day” on which the village lives “a day of great atmosphere with institutional and festive events” joined by residents and visitors.
The second is 5 July, the date of his birth, when the Premios Solidarios carrying his name are handed out at the Centro Cultural Blas Infante.
There are 3 awards:
- “Casares por Andalucía”, for development education projects across Andalusia.
- “Casares por España”, for the same kind of work at national level.
- “Casares por la Humanidad”, for international cooperation projects.
Three stages, and what is missing
The calendar splits its events between 3 centres: the village of Casares, Secadero and the coast.
The place names that recur are the Plaza de España and La Carrera for the fair dances, El Llano for the younger crowd, the Plaza de Andalucía and calle Estepona for the Noche en Vela on 1 July, and the amphitheatre of the Jardines del Rosario for Friday evenings in July. On the coast the reference point is Playa Ancha.
The tourism section of the council site returns no readable content, so there are no monument hours or prices here, no distances between the centres and no population figure. Programmes are issued year by year and Holy Week moves.
Above the village sits the protected area covered in Sierra Crestellina, with its griffon vultures; the municipality’s awarded beach is counted in blue flag beaches; the source of the Genal is one of the sites in Malaga’s five natural monuments; and the village belongs on the white villages route and in day trips from Malaga.
Frequently asked questions about Casares
What is there to eat in Casares?
At the April food festival, a route through bars, restaurants and country inns serves dishes made with milk-fed kid goat and goat cheese, promoting the Payoya breed native to the Serranía de Ronda.
Why does Casares matter on Andalusia Day?
Because Casares is the birthplace of Blas Infante, whom the council calls the father of the Andalusian homeland. On 28 February the village holds institutional and festive events that draw residents and visitors alike.
When is the Casares fair?
The first weekend of August, over four days in the old town, with orchestra dances in La Carrera and the Plaza de España and a younger crowd at El Llano, according to the calendar published by the council.
Six events in August, a pilgrimage down to the Genal, and two dates no other village can hold.