Welcome to the "Aplec del Caragol" (the Snail Festival)
The Aplec festival is now well-known throughout Spain and the rest of Europe, and has even been sistered with other festivals. The festival welcomes everyone interested in having a good time and getting to know the gastronomy of the city of Lleida, as well as the people who live there. The Aplec del Caragol is a gastronomy festival held in the city of Lleida each year at the end of May that focuses on that exquisite delicacy, the snail. Declared a Festival of National Interest for Tourism and a Festival of National Traditional Interest, the Snail Festival dates back to 1980, when the first festivities were organized by a group of friends on the banks of the River Segre.

12 tones of snails
One thing that really stands out about this major gastronomy festival are the figures: 12 tonnes of snails. That’s the amazing quantity of gastropods that will be consumed during the three-day Festival. It will be a real feast.

The main ingredient of the meals served during the Festival is the snail, which is why snail consumption skyrockets in May. Snails are shipped to Lleida from the rest of Spain, North Africa and South America to the delight of the Lleida snail lovers and visitors to the city. On the Festival grounds there is an area set aside for the general public to taste dishes made with different kinds of snails at reasonable prices.

12.000 snail club members
La Federació de Colles de l’Aplec del Caragol (Federation of Snail Festival Social Clubs) –which organizes the Aplec– is made up of about a hundred different social clubs with members of all ages and social classes. These social clubs are the heart and soul of the festival. You can get a real feel for the vitality of these social clubs on the Sunday during the Festival, when morning parades fill the city streets with a burst of colour and music. The bright costumes and flags paraded along the Old Bridge with Seu Vella Cathedral in the background are a breathtaking sight. More than 12.000 club members and 250.000 visitors actively participate in the Snail Festival. Most of them are from Lleida, but in recent years, the number of club members from other cities and even other countries has increased. They are either invited by friends or simply attracted by the Festival’s fame and wear their club’s special costumes during the Festival. The social clubs are made up of groups of friends, families and colleagues from work and some of them have very unusual names. Each club is assigned a space along the Camps Elisis, the fair grounds where the Festival is held. For three days, the focus is on festivities, gastronomy and leisure activities in an atmosphere of friendliness and hospitality where everyone feels at home.

3 days of festivities
The Snail Festival begins on Friday afternoon and lasts until Sunday. There is something for everyone, including outdoor evening celebrations, concerts, music, “castells” (human towers), competitions and much more. Besides gastronomy, the Snail Festival offers an extensive programme of free activities open to one and all: performances, charanga music, outdoor evening celebrations, exhibitions of dances and castell human towers, and entertaining competitions. A number of events take place at the same time in different parts of the city, which means there is always something fun and exciting happening during the Snail Festival weekend.

In Lleida, we love you
Come to Lleida. Besides the Snail Festival, there are hundreds of other exciting things to do. Impressive monuments such as Seu Vella Cathedral, the Templar castle of Gardeny, La Panera Art Centre, Roda Roda Automobile Museum and the Water Museum; the May festival, the Moors and Christians Festival and the International Puppet Festival; Senglar Rock Music Festival, the International Jazz Festival and the opera season at the Auditorium; the Latin American Film Festival and the Animac International Animated Film Festival; the BTT Bicycle Centre; the gastronomy and culture of Lleida; and the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe.

Come by high-speed train, by bus or by car. Come however you can. Call us anytime of the year and we’ll organize a trip so you can enjoy the Snail Festival and many other activities we’ve planned just for you!.