In August 2024, my friend Lisa asked if I would like to go on a coach trip to the Jumilla Wine Festival with her. I wasn't doing anything else and decided to go.
As Lisa and I sat at Roda Bar, we saw a bus go past, heading towards Los Alcazares and Los Narejos. Lisa thought it was our bus and that it was strange that it had gone past us to make a pickup at the Arches first. A few minutes later, we finished our drinks and walked towards the pickup point.
Just as we walked from the Roda Bar to the bus stop where we were being picked up, next to Campbells' Bar, the heavens opened, and heavy rain started to come down. We dived under the cover of the outside awnings at Cambells´ Bar, where we also saw a few other people who were being picked up to go on the trip.
A short time later, the bus came back, and we all took our seats. The bus then set off on a very circuitous route to the Mar Menor Golf Club at Torre Pacheco to pick more people up. It took a long route to get there, and I wondered if the driver had made a mistake and forgotten to pick them up because he seemed to go back on himself.
After picking people up, he then had to head to the Terrazas de la Torre Golf Resort. For some reason known only to the driver, instead of cutting straight across to the resort, he went back to Los Alcazares, took the motorway to San Javier, and then went towards Balsicas before turning off at the resort. This doubled the time and distance it would typically have been to get there. Still, we eventually arrived and picked up another group of people before finally heading towards Jumilla and the festival.
Jumilla Festival.
When we arrived at the bus station, we were all told several times that we had to be back on the bus at 1:30 am for the trip home. When we got off the bus, I was expecting to be shown where the parade would be, and I was hoping to see lots of bars, restaurants, and stalls selling wine, food, and other goods. Our guide did not do this, and in the end, we made our way through the park and found the main road on which the parade would be.
Unfortunately, all of the bars and shops were shut, and all of the seats were owned by people who lived in Jumilla and had put them out earlier in the day to save themselves a spot to see the parade. It was like a Spanish version of putting their towel on a recliner to save a place by the pool. There were no spaces to sit down, and after Lisa and I walked the entire length of the road where the parade was to take place, we walked back the way we had come and went into the only open bar, Cafe Sota. When we went inside, we saw most of the people who had been on the coach with us, and they all said the same thing: that it was the only place open.
We had been told on the coach that there would be lots of places to get cheap drinks and food. While the wine and food we bought at Cafe Sota were lovely, they were not cheap. It was the same price that we would have paid in any pub or bar in Los Alcazares. When the parade was due to start, we went outside to stand behind all the locals who had put their chairs out on the route during the day. Several tractors came past, pulling advertising for the wine producers they represented, and some of these gave tiny samples of wine out in plastic cups to people who had got their chairs and tables on the route. Many of the tractors were followed by children in the bodegas uniform, and some of them were followed by bands playing music. There were, however, very few differences between the people in the parade, and as I was unable to get a seat to rest my knees, I went back inside the bar. I could see the pretty unimpressive floats through the large picture window and hear the brass bands playing as they walked past.
The wine in the bar was very nice, and the food I had was also delicious, but I could have had better and more reasonably priced at any Spanish bar in Los Alcazares.
When the parade had finished, we walked back towards the bus station, hoping that as it was still early, we would find some of the promised bars, restaurants and stalls open to get something to eat. The only thing we could find open was the fair. We sat and listened to some young men singing at a local Peña and then went to use the toilet at the bus station before finding a seat to wait for the bus. As I sat waiting for Lisa, our guide got off the bus, telling me we were late. We were not late. We were 20 minutes early, and there were still others walking back from the fun fair that I could see across the road.
When we got back on the bus, we set off for home relatively quickly, and Lisa fell asleep in the chair next to me. I watched the lights flickering as we passed by some of the towns and villages. The driver must have used Google to find a better route on the way back as he went more directly. After stopping and dropping people off at Terrazas de la Torre Golf Resort, he made a stop at the Arches in Los Narejos before dropping us off at Roda at around 3:30 am.
We got off the bus and walked back to Lisas' house, got some water and went to bed.
Photos from the Jumilla Wine Festival.
Summary.
I met some lovely people, enjoyed the company, and liked the bar we did find and the food we bought, but I was very unimpressed with the organisation of the tour and the parade itself. I would not bother returning for the parade again. I did like the town of Jumilla itself and may try to get back to have a look around during the day when the bars and shops are open.
A couple of days after this parade, Los Alcazares had a parade of its own, and while it is not huge by any means, it was much better than the Jumilla parade, and all the bars and shops were open. If you get the opportunity to visit the wine festival, I suggest you miss it and stay local instead.
The most impressive thing at the festival was the fountain in the park, which had red dye in it to make it look like a fountain of red wine.