Ham Fairs and Events in Spain

Spain has about ten events devoted to ham, and they are nothing like one another. Some are village fairs where three thousand sandwiches are handed out. Others are trade congresses where industry people discuss traceability. Here is which ones are worth the trip, in which season, and which ones are not meant for you.

A calendar, not a ranking

Ranking these events from best to worst would mean nothing: they are not in the same business. A village fair, a trade show and a scientific congress do not address the same people.

What is useful is knowing when they happen. Almost all of them come round at the same time each year, and entry is free in most cases.

One warning before you book: dates shift from year to year, and two of these are held only every other year. Always check with the organiser; the links are at the foot of the page.

We have removed from this page a Trujillo fair we used to list: we found no recent trace of it. Trujillo does have a large fair, but it is the cheese one.

The three worth the trip

Aracena, in the Sierra de Huelva. It is the oldest of the group by number of editions, and it takes the last two weekends of October. There is a carvers’ competition, workshops, tastings of Jabugo designation ham, and some fifty exhibitors between the main pavilion and the artisans’ marquee. Entry is free.

Villanueva de Córdoba, in the heart of Los Pedroches. Four days in November, around thirty thousand visitors, and a “ham tunnel” that takes you through a guided tasting. The town hall runs it with the designation’s regulatory board: what you taste is acorn-fed 100% Ibérico from the one designation that requires pure breed.

Monesterio, in Extremadura. A single day, the second Saturday of September, and the most popular of the lot. The sandwiches start going out at ten in the morning. The festival dates from 1990, and Extremadura listed it as of tourist interest in 2009.

The ones not meant for you

The Guijuelo trade fair is an industry event: more than a hundred and twenty exhibiting companies over ten thousand square metres, from raw-material suppliers to distributors. You do not go there to eat ham. And it is held only every other year, in June.

The world ham congress is something else again. It is a scientific and professional meeting, biennial and above all itinerant: it is often presented as the Zafra event, but Zafra hosted a single edition, in 2024. The next was held in Granada in 2026. The talk there is of traceability, food safety and artificial intelligence, before five hundred delegates.

We list them because they matter to the trade, and because anyone planning a trip should know they are not for them.

Teruel, the fair that is not about Ibérico

This is the nuance most lists miss. Teruel ham does have a protected designation, with its fire brand shaped as an eight-pointed star. But its specification requires a Landrace or Large White dam and a Duroc sire: that is white pig.

The designation’s own regulatory board says so plainly. It is neither a flaw nor a deception — it is simply another product with its own rules, as we set out in a whole article.

Its fair, in mid-September, brings together the designation’s farms and drying houses, with a quality competition, a tasting workshop and business meetings for importers. It deserves to be known for what it is.

And Salamanca, where our pieces come from

Our hams are cured in the province of Salamanca, and it has its own event: the traditional Guijuelo matanza, in February, over four weekends. Charcutiers at work, a night matanza, the mondongo festival, then a food fair to finish. The region has listed it as of tourist interest.

It is the opposite of the trade show held in the same town: this one is open, popular, and it shows the craft rather than the market.

The city of Salamanca has also launched an Iberian forum in late May, with a hundred or so carvers on the Plaza Mayor. It is recent and its dates have already moved once: check before you travel.

Where this information comes from

The dates, organisers and figures on this page come from town hall websites, regulatory boards and official listings, all set out at the foot of the page. Where an event had no recent trace, we removed it rather than copy it across. Where a figure circulates without a source, we say so instead of repeating it. And we sell Iberian ham: you should know that before reading the above.