La Fiesta del Agua y Jamón

High in the otherworldly beauty of the Alpujarras mountains in Granada, the town of Lanjarón is famous for its San Juan ham and water celebrations on the 23rd June every year.

The annual San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist) festival is celebrated all over Spain, usually with roaring bonfires, ostensibly to empower the waning sun after the summer solstice of June 21st, and often the flames of these bonfires will be made to engulf effigies and rag dolls symbolic of all the previous year´s nastiness. In coastal regions, smoking and aromatic all-night barbecues line the beaches, whilst inland, city streets are transformed by bizarre and surrealist processions of floats and blazing torches.

Meanwhile, in Lanjarón, a tranquil Alpujarran mountain town of about 4,000 people, the Fiesta de San Juan is all about water. Its own water, in fact; this spa town is renowned for its natural springs and chalybeate baths, shipping its mineral-rich waters around the country under its own eponymous brand of bottled water. As a further display of its devotion to water, Lanjarón has also dotted around its streets and plazas a number of special fountains with plaques promising various blessings, including health, fertility and even the perfect paella!

It´s fair to say that the people of Lanjarón put a lot of faith in their water, and on June 23rd every year since 1980, the townsfolk (and the many non-locals and tourists who flock in especially) have been dumping it all over each other in what is dubbed the biggest water fight in the world. The stroke of midnight before the 24th always ushers in an hour of deluge from water pistols, Super Soakers, great heaving buckets and lolloping water balloons – even high-powered firemen’s hoses. The idea behind all of this is of course baptism, and certainly the water fight (or water race, la Gran Carrera del Agua) has a natural capacity for cleansing any prior bad moods, inhibitions or seriousness that may exist in the crowd. In any case, the overriding reality is just an incredibly fun mad hour of free-for-all drenching.

Thankfully for all those involved, the second element of the water and ham festival isn’t used as a projectile, but eaten – in abundance. Over the days both leading up to and following the 23rd, visitors and locals alike are given the chance to indulge in the region’s fine produce – Lanjarón being renowned in the Alpujarras and beyond for its exceptional hams.

Mounted on jamoneros, whole cured legs are stripped of delicate slices of intense and creamy gran reserva ham with the skill and precision such a product deserves, then served by throngs of devoted artesanos either on its own considerable merits or in a range of irresistibly novel preparations. At the festival, for instance, you’ll find it grated into a thick and creamy bechamel sauce for rich and luxurious deviled eggs, or rolled up in thin and crispy crepes straight from the pan. You could even be lucky enough to find it pulped with tomato and nougat, for one of the most unexpectedly moreish ice creams you’ve ever tried.

La Fiesta del Agua y Jamón is also characterised (naturally) by plenty of ice cold beer, traditional costumiery, brass band despertás (wake up calls) and parades, as well as near-continuous live music.

If you´re ever in the area, this one’s not to be missed.