Patron's Day of Petrel

Petrer celebrates every May, close to the feast of San Bonifacio, its magnificent Moors and Christians Festival. On those dates the Moors and Christians bands, divided into "comparsas" and "filaes", are the real center of the celebration.

It is a festival of National Tourist Interest that has been celebrated since the seventeenth century, and fills the city with hustle and bustle from Thursday to Monday on the weekend closest to May 14. In those days parade parades of Berber, Bedouins, students, Biscayans and many more, and events are held as colorful as the fun retreta, which follows the exciting entrance of bands where the pasodoble that kicks off the festivities is interpreted.

With the descent of the saint the party takes a more emotional turn, and in the guerrillas and Moorish embassies resound arquebuses. There is also a humorous embassy in Valencian. The Christian entrance, the Solemn Procession, the parade of honor of the captaincies or the Moorish entrance and the ascent of the saint complete the program of events, in a city totally transformed for a few days a year.