There are traditions preserved in museums and traditions passed down within families. Seville’s traditions fall into the latter category: flamenco is learnt in neighbourhood schools, Holy Week is passed down from parents to children, and Triana pottery continues to be produced in family-run workshops. None of the things featured in this guide are staged for visitors: they all remain part of the city’s everyday life.

In the following paragraphs, we explain what each tradition is, when it takes place and how you can experience it first-hand.

Flamenco in Seville: where and how to listen to it

Flamenco, which has been declared Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, originated in Andalusia and has one of its three major centres in Seville, alongside Jerez and Cádiz. Here, it is not an imported spectacle: it is an everyday practice that is studied in academies, celebrated at private gatherings known as juergas, and performed every night across the city.

For visitors, the most accessible way in is via the tablaos: professional performances of singing, dancing and guitar playing in small venues, where the proximity to the stage is part of the experience. Among the best known are the Casa de la Memoria and the Museo del Baile Flamenco, founded by the flamenco dancer Cristina Hoyos, both in the city centre, as well as several historic tablaos in Santa Cruz and Triana. Our advice: book in advance and choose performances in small venues, where flamenco can be heard as it was meant to be – up close.

For those looking to take it a step further, there are the flamenco clubs – associations of enthusiasts where people sing and dance without a stage or a script – particularly in Triana and around the Alameda. Not all of them are open to visitors every day, but many organise public performances. At Tayko, bringing these experiences to you is part of what we do: just ask us and we’ll find a way.

Holy Week: the city takes to the streets

Holy Week in Seville is one of the most important religious and cultural events in the world. During the week leading up to Easter, more than sixty brotherhoods take part in processions with their floats, sculptures of Christ and the Virgin Mary carried on the shoulders of the ‘costaleros’ – the men who bear them, hidden beneath the structure – amidst the scent of incense, the music of marching bands and streets packed with people from morning until the early hours of the morning.

You don’t need to be religious to be moved by it. Our tip for making the most of it: choose a procession in the early hours through the historic centre, when the streets are lit only by the wax of the candles and the silence is broken by a ‘saeta’ – a song sung from a balcony as the procession passes by. And a practical word of warning: this is the busiest week of the year, and accommodation needs to be booked months in advance.

The April Fair: spring in a gypsy costume

Two weeks after Holy Week, the city changes gear with the April Fair. For a week, the Real de la Feria – a site with over a thousand marquees in the Los Remedios neighbourhood – becomes the centre of the celebrations: manzanilla and rebujito, fried fish, sevillanas danced until the early hours, and flamenco dresses on display in the streets of albero, amidst horses and lanterns.

Things to know before you go: most of the pavilions are private, run by families, social clubs and companies, but those belonging to the religious brotherhoods, the districts and certain organisations are open to the public, and the street itself – with its illuminated monumental gateway and the atmosphere created by the morning horse rides – is reason enough to visit. We recommend visiting at midday on a weekday, when you can enjoy the Real at a leisurely pace.

The Seville calendar: other events

The Sevillian calendar features a number of other key dates. Corpus Christi, when the streets of the city centre are carpeted with rosemary; the Cruces de Mayo; the Velá de Santa Ana, Triana’s festival at the end of July, with its lively open-air atmosphere by the river; the Three Kings’ Parade in January; and, above all, El Rocío: the pilgrimage that brings together nearly a million people every Pentecost on the road to the village of Almonte, amidst carts, horses and traditional singing. Many of El Rocío’s brotherhoods set off from Seville, and watching them depart, crossing the river towards the marshes, is a spectacle in itself.

Triana pottery: the craft that adorned Seville

If there is one thing that unites all the traditions mentioned above, it is that they can be touched – and nothing illustrates this better than Triana’s pottery. For centuries, the potteries in this neighbourhood produced the tiles that adorn Seville’s churches, squares and façades, including the benches in the Plaza de España. The craft has never been lost: several workshops still practise traditional techniques, and the Triana Ceramics Centre – housed in a former factory with its original kilns still intact – explains the entire process. We recommend combining your visit with a trip to the Triana market and returning to the city centre by crossing the bridge, with the façade of the pottery district behind you.

Experiencing traditions from the heart

All the traditions featured in this guide take place within easy reach of the Puerta de Jerez: the tablaos in Santa Cruz are just a few minutes’ walk away, Triana is on the other side of the bridge, and the Holy Week processions pass right by the hotel. At Tayko, this is also how we see our role: as the starting point from which we help each guest find their own way of experiencing the city. The traditions were already here; we simply open the door to them.

Tayko Seville. The start of your story in the city.