Tolox has a great cultural richness that is manifested in the variety of local festivals that take place throughout the year. The most representative local festivals are the Powder Day, which takes place on the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday; or the “Cohetá”, a celebration that takes place on August 16 in honour of San Roque, patron saint of the town.
JANUARY
Tolox offers its visitors one more example of its gastronomy; The Wine Tasting which takes place in the Plaza Alta of the municipality. In the days prior to the event the musto producers of Tolox select their best wines to be collected by the organisation in identical bottles, these wines will be selected as the best musto of the harvest.
FEBRUARY
The Tolox Carnival is one of the oldest known in our province. The Chapter Acts of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries collected information on prohibitions and acts not recommended by the Church regarding the carnivals of the municipality. This local festival, on Shrove Tuesday, known as the “Powder Day”, stands out as Toloxians parade around the streets in elaborate costumes, culminating late in the evening with a dramatic display of powder throwing.
MARCH
For some years now, the municipality of Tolox has been celebrating the “Sierra de las Nieves” Horse Route, where hundreds of horsemen gather for a day of conviviality to take a horseback ride through the Sierra de las Nieves, visiting some focal points of the National Park. During that day, herds come from many different geographical areas of Andalusia.
MAY
In May the inhabitants of this small municipality honour the Virgen de las Nieves by taking her on a pilgrimage to her hermitage. The transfer is carried out in a pure white carriage drawn by mules along the path that leads to the hermitage, making small stops to rest and shake off the dust from the road.
JULY
Since 1993, every year during the first fortnight of July, the “Villa de Tolox Folkloric Festival” is held in the Plaza Alta. Many groups from all over the Spanish geography have passed through this festival, as well as from neighbouring Portugal, positioning themselves as a benchmark of National Folklore.
AUGUST
The Fiesta de San Roque, known as La Cohetá, is a celebration that takes place every August 16 in Tolox, where it is patron. The main act of the festival is a procession with the statue of San Roque, accompanied by the release of thousands of rockets, approximately 50,000, which the neighbours set off as the statue passes their particular offering and display of devotion.
SEPTEMBER
Contemporary art on the street. Artists from all disciplines meet for a weekend around art and nature, to create and perform their work live in public spaces, making neighbours and visitors participate in their works. Art Tolox is an international meeting of artists that takes place annually in our municipality.
DECEMBER
A Traditional festival originated by an event that occurred at Christmas in the year 1539. The story goes that after the Reconquest, a small group of Moors remained in the town. It happened that two women, one Christian and the other Moorish, because they wanted to bake their preserves in the same place, provoked a terrible dispute between the two sides.
