Beans and a great atmosphere throughout, with Tolosa’s traditional alubia bean fest

The weekend of Tolosa’s Alubia Bean Fest is one of the most intense in town. In fact this extraordinary fair held to celebrate the black pearl also combines lunch gatherings at large tables, gastronomy competitions and street performances, congregating a good number of locals and visitors alike. 

This year, despite the adverse weather conditions, the Babarrunaren Festa repeated the success it has enjoyed in recent years.  

As the traditional fair in the Tinglado market got off to a start, the smell of beans was already invading the streets of Tolosa early on Saturday morning. As usual, the local chefs prepared all of the beans participating in the Producers Competition, a total of 24. This year, the winning bean was produced by Sebas Gartziarena from Berastegi.

Tolosa’s Association of Alubia Bean Producers precisely qualified this year’s harvest as “better than that of the previous year”. Despite being late, they stressed that “it cooks faster, and produces a finer juice and in greater quantity”.  

The vegetarian pudding competition too captured the attention of those who had decided to visit the extraordinary alubia bean fair. 

After the traditional alubia bean feasts in the bars of Tolosa and in the gastronomic societies, the Euskal Jaia or Basque Fiesta took over from the extraordinary fair. Bertsolaris (singers of improvised Basque verse), trikitilaris (accordion and tambourine players), brass bands, DJs and music groups set about enlivening the streets and squares of the old town, packed with people wearing traditional Basque costumes. 

Another traditional lunch gathering on the Sunday marked the grand finale of the fiesta, bringing more than 500 people together in the Tinglado eatery. Previously, the txapela or beret presented to the winners of the traditional gastronomy competition had gone to Marijo Irastorza and Karlos Jacinto.