Calçots and calçotadas 2026-2027: the season and the Valls Gran Festa

Calçot season runs from November to April, according to the IGP Calçot de Valls, and the 45th Gran Festa de la Calçotada in Valls is on Sunday 31 January 2027, the last Sunday of January as every year. The 2027 programme, ticket price and tasting pack have not been published yet (checked on 26 October 2026).

When is calçot season?

The IGP Calçot de Valls, the body that regulates the product, puts it simply: "La seva temporada és de novembre a abril" (its season is November to April). The Generalitat's product specification gives the dates: the campaign starts on 1 November and ends at the end of April the following year, and calçots grown outside it cannot be sold as IGP. This season, then, runs from 1 November 2026 to the end of April 2027.

Valls City Council agrees: the best time for a calçotada is the winter months, "especially from November to April". The Gran Festa at the end of January falls in the middle of the season, with three more months of calçotades after it.

When is the Valls Calçotada 2027?

On Sunday 31 January 2027. The Valls Chamber of Commerce announced it on 19 October 2026, when it unveiled the poster for the 45th edition (official note), and the festival website repeats it. The festival is organised by the Chamber of Commerce and Valls City Council.

The date is not random: according to the City Council, the Gran Festa is held every year on the last Sunday of January, and Valls has held it since 1982. 31 January 2027 is indeed the last Sunday of the month.

What is not known yet: the 2027 programme of events, the ticket price and what the tasting pack includes. The 19 October note says the programme details will be announced "in the coming days". The festival's home page already mentions a price and a pack, but they are the same as in the 2026 edition, so we do not treat them as final. When the programme is presented it will appear in the festival's press room.

When do the programme and tickets come out?

For the 2026 edition (25 January 2026), the advance sale of the tasting pack opened on the official website on 8 January 2026, and the 1,800 advance tickets sold out in six days. The official presentation was on 21 January 2026, four days before the festival, and on the day itself another 1,800 packs were sold, running out by midday.

If you want a 2027 pack, watch the festival website: in 2026, advance sales opened on 8 January.

What the 2026 Gran Festa was like (what to expect)

The 2027 programme is not public yet. This is how the 2026 edition was laid out, according to the official website; check it against the new programme when it comes out:

• From 10:00 (2026): calçot-grilling demonstrations in the car park on Carrer de Sant Antoni, next to Plaça de l'Oli, and, on Plaça del Blat, the calçot growers' contest and the calçotada sauce contest.
• At 13:00 (2026): the calçot-eating contest on Plaça del Pati, opened by the human-tower pillars of the Colla Joves and Colla Vella dels Xiquets de Valls; the 2026 prizes were handed out at 14:00.
• The tasting (2026): the pack cost €15 on the day, from the ticket points on Plaça del Pati, at the City Council and at the Institut d'Estudis Vallencs. It included 12 cooked IGP calçots, sauce, wine, bread, water, an orange, dessert and a bib, eaten in the tasting area in the Societat Agrícola car park, with tables and grills for your own meat.
• A request from the organisers (2026): so that nobody eats calçots in the street, all tastings took place in the tasting area.

According to the organisers' round-up, about 35,000 people came in 2026 and 3,600 tastings were served. It is a street festival in the middle of January: before you set off, check what the weather is usually like in January.

Calçofest 2026: Saturday 21 November in Valls

Before the Gran Festa, Valls has another date: Calçofest, whose second edition is on Saturday 21 November 2026. According to Valls City Council it has become one of the events that open the calçotada season, combining free activities in the morning, a popular calçotada and concerts in the afternoon and evening.

• Popular calçotada: 13:00 to 15:00 in the Cooperativa car park, with 1,500 tastings at €15 plus booking fees. Tickets are sold on the Calçofest website.
• Concerts: Figa Flawas, The Tyets, Els Pets and Els Amics de les Arts, among others.
• Bus from Barcelona: the Calçofest organisers have arranged an official return bus from the Estació de França area, leaving at 14:30 and timed for the concerts (it does not reach the 13:00-15:00 calçotada), subject to a minimum number of passengers and returning after the music ends. In Valls, a free shuttle bus links the bus station with the festival site.

Source: Valls City Council, 15 October 2026. Concert ticket prices rise as the date approaches; check them on the festival website. For the other autumn food fairs, see our calendar.

What is a calçot, and what does the IGP Calçot de Valls guarantee?

A calçot is the tender shoot of a sweet white onion, cooked over open flames. The name comes from how it is grown: as the plant grows, soil is heaped around it (calçar in Catalan) so that the base stays white. It is a long process: the onion is sown, lifted, stored for a while, replanted half-buried and earthed up several times before the harvest.

The IGP Calçot de Valls (Protected Geographical Indication) is the EU label that protects calçots from a specific area grown in a specific way. According to the Catalan Department of Agriculture:

• Variety: Allium cepa L. onions of the Blanca Gran Tardana de Lleida variety.
• Growing area: four comarques (counties): Alt Camp, Baix Camp, Tarragonès and Baix Penedès.
• Size: a white stem 15 to 25 cm long.
• Rules: entered in the EU register by Regulation (EC) 905/2002; the IGP's own regulation is the Generalitat's Ordre AAR/414/2009.
• Output: 1,750 tonnes in 2023 and 47 registered growers, according to the Department's page (updated 2 July 2026).

How to tell an IGP bunch

Look at the tie and the tag. IGP calçots are sold in bunches tied with a blue ribbon and a numbered label bearing the name "Calçot de Valls. Indicació Geogràfica Protegida" and the IGP logo; Valls City Council adds that the grower's name is on it. Under the product specification, only calçots that have passed every check reach the market with that label. A calçot without one may be good, but it has no IGP guarantee.

How a calçotada works and how to eat calçots

A calçotada is more a ritual than a dish: a group lunch, outdoors if the weather allows, with calçots as the star. This is how Valls City Council and the Chamber of Commerce describe it:

How many calçots each? The Chamber of Commerce says between 20 and 35, depending on experience and appetite. They are traditionally eaten standing up, and do not forget the bib, as the City Council reminds visitors; wear clothes that can take a stain. More in the festival's Com fer una calçotada guide (in Catalan).

Where does it come from? According to Valls City Council, the calçotada was born in Valls at the end of the 19th century, when a farmer known as the Xat de Benaiges roasted onion shoots over a flame and ate them dressed with oil, vinegar and salt. In the late 1940s the Penya Artística de l'Olla made it known beyond Valls by inviting people from Barcelona's arts and culture world.

The sauce: salvitxada or calçotada sauce

Calçots are dipped in a sauce of nuts and roasted vegetables. The Department of Agriculture calls it salvitxada; the Chamber of Commerce and Valls City Council call it salsa de la calçotada (calçotada sauce), and the Gran Festa holds a contest for it.

According to the City Council and the Chamber, the basic ingredients are toasted almonds and hazelnuts, roasted tomatoes and garlic, olive oil, vinegar, dried pepper or sweet paprika, parsley and salt, all finely ground. The proportions are each household's business: "every family has its secret", says the Chamber.

In 2026 the festival also included a sauce demonstration for people with coeliac disease and nut intolerance.

Getting to Valls from Barcelona by public transport

By train: the Rodalies R13. This is the regional line from Barcelona-Estació de França to Lleida via Valls, also calling at Passeig de Gràcia and Sants (R13 line page). There are only a few direct trains a day and some run on working weekdays only, so check the R13 timetable for the day you travel: the 10 July 2026 timetable shows no R13 train on Sundays. Since 11 July 2026 the line runs through Valls again, after engineering works that had diverted it via Reus and Tarragona.

By bus: the Monbus Valls – Barcelona line, with stops at Barcelona Sants and Maria Cristina. Its timetable of 14 July 2026 includes Sundays and public holidays, with at least one bus each way. Valls City Council collects this and the other bus timetables on its public transport page.

From Tarragona, Autocars Plana runs several Valls – Tarragona routes, according to the City Council. To combine the trip with Tarragona, here is how to get there by train from Barcelona.

On the day of the Gran Festa: no special transport has been announced for 31 January 2027 yet. Before you go, check the festival's press room.

Data on this page last verified: 26 October 2026.

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