Tamborrada

Tamborrada of Donostia (in Basque Donostiako Danborrada) is a celebratory drum festival held every year on January 20 in the city of San Sebastián, Spain.

At midnight, in the Konstituzio Plaza in the "Alde Zaharra/Parte Vieja" (Old Town), the mayor raises the flag of San Sebastián.

The celebration ends at midnight, when people congregate at the Konstituzio Plaza and the city flag is simultaneously lowered at various locations.

This was especially true during the Siege of San Sebastián (1813), in which international powers (Spain, France, Great Britain, and Portugal) were involved.

[3]: 107 The festival is said to originate from the 1830s custom of locals using buckets and hardware from the water pump to mock the soldiers stationed in the city by aping their daily procession from the San Telmo headquarters to the Main Gate at the city walls (Puerta de Tierra).

Other sociedades gastronómicas ("gourmet clubs") joined the Union Artesana in following years, thus expanding the festival attendance.

The event was cancelled in 1902 and was revived in 1906, but remained the same way even up to the years of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, which banned Carnival statewide, but maintained the two iconic festivals of the city, the Tamborrada and the Caldereros.

The old city march, composed by José Juan Santesteban, was added to the official songlist in 2013, marking the bicentennial year since the historic siege of 1813.

Adults usually have dinner in sociedades gastronómicas ("gourmet clubs"), which provide elements of the procession, and traditionally admitted only males.

They eat sophisticated meals, mostly composed of seafood (traditionally elver, now no longer served due to its exorbitant price) and drink the best wines.

2024 marks the 63rd anniversary of the Children's Tamborrada, which launched in 1961 to promote the cultural legacy of the festival to the younger generations.