Fiesta de la Sidra Natural (Nava)
Go if you are in Asturias in July and can handle a crowded town. Avoid if you want the cider country quiet.
To see cider culture at full volume rather than as a background habit.
At a Glance
- — Crowds
- — You are travelling in another season
For a few days in July, Nava fills with cider: casks tapped in the street, the judging of the season's cider, and crowds that include as many Asturians as visitors. It is a regional festival rather than an international one, and that is the appeal: most of the people drinking are from the valleys around it. Expect crowds, music, and a great deal of cider poured from a height. Accommodation in the valley goes early; Oviedo and Gijón are within easy reach.
How it got here
Nava sits in the heart of the comarca de la Sidra, a landscape defined by the traditional production of fermented apple juice that dates back to the Roman period in northern Spain. The festival grew from local contests held by rural producers who gathered to evaluate each year's harvest after the winter fermentation. These communal gatherings served as a method for maintaining the quality of the regional drink during the rise of industrialization in neighboring coal basins. The event solidified its status in the later decades of the twentieth century as growers and cider makers formalised their internal competition to preserve the traditional practices of the Asturian valleys.
Where it sits
Deep green slopes rise abruptly from the valley floor toward the Picos de Europa. This landscape holds the high humidity necessary for the apple orchards that define the sightlines of the eastern Asturian interior. Roads wind through narrow river canyons, connecting the small villages to the larger industrial centers on the coast. Summer brings heat that breaks into heavy rain, while autumn turns the dense deciduous forests into a canopy of rust and gold. The valley floor stays quiet throughout the year until July, when transit from Oviedo brings a sudden influx of people to the narrow village streets.
What to eat and drink
Cider poured from a height remains the essential drink, served in thin glass tumblers to release the aroma through oxygenation. The primary dish is chorizos a la sidra, sausages simmered slowly in the local fermented apple juice until tender. Alongside these, order fabada asturiana, a heavy stew of large white faba beans, morcilla blood sausage, and salt pork. For dessert, select casadielles, fried pastry tubes filled with a paste of ground walnuts, sugar, and anise. These dishes rely on the simple pantry staples of the Cantabrian mountains, designed to fuel the body against the damp, cool climate of the northern valleys.
Asturias: the whole region
Asturias fits a whole coast, a mountain range and a serious kitchen into a province you can cross in two hours. Cider poured from a height, blue cheese, working fishing ports, and the Picos de Europa standing over all of it. It rains often…
Minimum 4 days · better 7 days · deep 10-12 days
In Asturias
In Asturias
In Asturias
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