What to expect
The Festa des Vermar is Binissalem's grape harvest festival and one of the best known festivals in the island's centre. Since 1965 the winegrowing town on the Ma-13 between Palma and Inca has celebrated the end of the grape harvest, and the original harvest thanksgiving has grown into a programme spanning around three weeks in September. In 2026 a big concert on 5 September opens the festival season, with the climax traditionally following on the last Sunday of September.
The fixed highlights include the grape treading on the Plaça, where barefoot teams compete to press the most must, and the Batalla del Raïm, the grape battle on a field at the edge of town where tonnes of overripe grapes fly through the air. If you join in, you are guaranteed not to come home clean. Things are calmer at the big Fideus de Vermar dinner: thousands sit at long tables in the streets eating the traditional noodle stew with lamb, washed down with wine from the DO Binissalem.
Parades with decorated floats, the election of the Vermadors and Vermadores, concerts and a wine fair with tastings from the local wineries round off the programme. For wine lovers the festival is the best opportunity of the year to sample the region's wines in one place.
Practical tips
- Getting there: Binissalem has its own station on the Palma-Inca railway line, with trains several times an hour during the day. On the main festival days the train is clearly preferable to the car.
- Crowds: On the final festival weekend and at the Fideus dinner the town is packed. You have to reserve seats for the dinner in advance, and tickets go fast.
- Costs: Parades and most events are free. The Fideus dinner, wine tastings and some concerts charge admission.
- Grape battle: Wear old clothes and pack your phone in something waterproof. The Ajuntament de Binissalem publishes the programme with exact dates in late summer.