The tiny village of Guaro is celebrating its annual Luna Mora festival. Every year, on the middle two weekends of September, the village of Guaro celebrates its Moorish moon festival.
All street lighting is turned off and the entire village is lit via candles. Over 20,000 of them. The tiny village becomes a hive of activity with thousands of visitors, concerts and productions.
Celebrating Al-Andalus culture
The streets turn into a large Moorish bazaar, with stalls offering all kinds of North African foods, henna tattoos, belly dancing and much more.
Celebrating Andalucia’s mix of Christian, Sephardic and Moorish influences.
Over the years, the festival has become increasingly popular and attracts some big names in the music industry.
The venue – 2010
This year’s festival is of particular importance.
Paco de Lucia and Diana Navarro both gave concerts this weekend to celebrate the opening of its huge open air auditorium. A grand 1600 seat open air theatre, that is the second largest in the province, after the 13,000-capacity arena at Malaga’s fairground.
The main concerts start at 2300hrs on the 17th and the 18th of September. Antonio Orozco and the Malaga University Orchestra on Saturday the 17th and Vicente Amigo on the 18th.
For tickets and further information - http://www.lunamora.org
A huge medieval market begins each evening at 1700hrs, with over 120 stalls of artisan products, workshops, performances and other activities.
Getting there
Guaro is situated at the entrance of the Sierra de las Nievas National Park.
The village is fifteen minutes from Marbella on the A355 via Monda. From Malaga, take the A357 to Cartama and follow signs to Coín, then Alozaína and finally Guaro (about forty minutes)
Parking has been arranged on land just outside the village and shuttle buses are ferrying people into the village itself.
Hi. Just read your posting about Luna Mora. I have been to the festival twice and really enjoyed it. The family have a villa between Guaro and Monda. Do you happen to know the dates of the 2011 festival ?
Regards,
John MIler
Hi John,
I have been looking and the town hall has not published the dates for the festival yet. I’ll keep my eyes open and let you know as soon as they do.
Best regards,
John
Hi, I was wondering if you had any news on the 2011 dates yet. I am waiting to finalise holiday dates to enable me to catch the festival, having missed it the last two years. Thanks, Adrienne
Hi Adrienne,
I just spoke with the Town Hall in Guaro (+34 952457573). The provincial dates for 2011 are the weekend of 9-11/09/11 and the following weekend ie 16-18/09/11. He did say these dates hadn’t been finalised, but seemed fairly confident there wouldn’t be any changes. Best to call them and make sure, but you can safely aim for those dates at the moment.
Have a great holiday and enjoy the festival!!
Hi John, thanks for this update, very kind of you to go to the trouble of phoning on my behalf. Kind thoughts, Adrienne.