Every year a very peculiar battle takes place in Haro: the wine battle. Before paying attention to the history behind this “battle” we can summarise its objective, which is no other but to find wine and throw it into somebody else.
Discover details about the La Batalla Del Vino or the San Vino Wine Festival.
The wine fight festival (AKA Haro wine fight) is held in Spain.
People also call it The Battle of Wine:
Haro
26200
La Rioja
Spain
Haro, La Rioja, normally a quiet little town in the north of spain in the heart of wine country every year at the end of the season they come across the same problem.. LEFTOVER WINE! The solution, BATALLA DEL VINO! Over 50,000 liters of wine making for an enormous wine fight! Water pistols, buckets, bottles, get your hands on whatever you can so you can be armed and ready to be part of the sticky wetness that is the battle of wine!
La battalla del vino de Haro, as the boozy festival is known, begins on the night of June 28, when children, grandparents and all ages in between gather on the town’s streets for a night of partying. At dawn the next morning, residents slip into white clothing and red bandanas and set out on a four-mile trek uphill to the highest point in Haro. The mayor leads the group on horseback.
The festival has its roots in the region's religious history. When local saint Felices de Bilibio died in the 6th century, people began making pilgrimages into the cliffs to honor him. A hermitage was erected in the 18th century, and soon celebrants were "baptizing" each other in wine to celebrate the event. The modern iteration of the tradition began in 1965, when the pilgrimage was dubbed a “wine battle” and residents of Haro started drenching each other in booze for the sheer joy of it.
Though the battle started as a local tradition, tourists now flock to Haro on June 29, willing to endure epic hangovers for the chance to participate in the wine-soaked revelry.
