Follow the smell of roasting chestnuts through the autumn streets
By late October, Valencia's street corners start to smell of woodsmoke and sugar. Chestnut vendors set up their braziers across the city, and the smoke drifts through the old town while the days shorten and the light turns gold. This is the run-up to Tots Sants — All Saints' Day — on 1 November, a public holiday in Valencia and the city's quiet, food-led answer to autumn. The tradition here is the Castanyada: roasted chestnuts eaten warm from the paper, alongside panellets, the small marzipan-like sweets that appear in the stalls from late October onwards. You don't need a ticket or a programme. You need a paper cone of chestnuts and a few panellets, and a slow walk through the centre.
Eat your way through the stalls: chestnuts and panellets
The seasonal food is the main event, and it's street food in the truest sense. From late October, look for stalls selling roasted chestnuts and panellets — the two things to seek out as 1 November approaches. The city-centre streets are walkable, so the simplest plan is to wander and graze rather than target a single address.
- Roasted chestnuts — sold from street stalls from late October onwards; buy them hot and eat them as you walk.
- Panellets — the marzipan-like sweets that define the Castanyada table; find them at the same seasonal stalls.
- Timing — the stalls appear in the weeks before 1 November, so the last days of October are when the city is at its most chestnut-scented.
Spend 1 November itself in the old town
Tots Sants is a public holiday, which changes the rhythm of the city: expect a slower day, with the seasonal stalls and the streets of the centre as your anchor. This is a day for the old town on foot — the city-centre events and streets are walkable — rather than for chasing a big set-piece. The sources give no Castanyada-specific concerts, parades or fireworks for Valencia city, so treat 1 November as a food-and-street day: chestnuts, panellets, and a unhurried loop through the historic centre.
Time your trip around 9 October and the run into autumn
If you're building a trip around the season, the calendar gives you more than one reason to come. Autumn — September and October — is described as good value, with normal prices and manageable crowds, and most Valencia festivals are free.
- 9 October — Día de la Comunitat Valenciana: commemorates Jaume I's entry into Valencia in 1238. There's an institutional ceremony at the Palau de la Generalitat, a military parade, a procession of the Senyera, and street festivities in the old town; many museums are free.
- 12 October — Día de la Hispanitat: a Spanish national holiday, though lower-key in Valencia than in Madrid.
- Late October into 1 November: the chestnut and panellet stalls arrive, building to Tots Sants itself.
Come for the early-October festivities and stay through the chestnut season, and you get two distinct moods of the city in a single trip.
Take the day trip to the Fira de Tots Sants de Cocentaina
The Valencia region's most famous autumn fair is not in the city at all. The Fira de Tots Sants de Cocentaina is held in Cocentaina, roughly 60 km south of Valencia, and is a multi-day traditional market with origins in the 13th century. It's the natural day trip from the city around this season — a historic fair rather than a modern event, and a good reason to give yourself more than a single day in the region. Check locally for the fair's exact dates in 2026, as the sources don't specify them.
Plan around the season, not a fixed programme
Valencia's Castanyada is not a ticketed festival with a published line-up; it's a public holiday expressed through food, streets and the turning of the season. Build your trip around late October and 1 November, plan to eat chestnuts and panellets from the stalls, walk the old town, and consider a day trip south to Cocentaina for the region's great autumn fair. Book for autumn, when prices are normal and the crowds are manageable, and let the city's chestnut smoke do the rest.