Festivals in CreteDietmar Rabich · CC BY-SA 4.0

Festivals in Crete

Food and harvest festivals, culture and music festivals, and carnival.

Festivals through the year

Every season has its festivals. Villages celebrate their own product with a day of food, music and dancing, towns put on summer festivals with theatre and concerts in fortresses and open-air venues, and before Lent the island dresses up for carnival.

Food and harvest festivals

From cherries in early summer to chestnuts in autumn, many villages have a festival for what grows there: olive oil, cheese, figs, grapes, sardines and more. They are local and friendly, with tasting, cooking, live music and dancing, and they are a great way to see village life.

Culture, music and carnival

In summer, towns organise festivals with theatre, concerts and exhibitions, often in old fortresses and open-air theatres. In the weeks before Lent, carnival brings costumes, parades and street parties; Rethymno has the biggest carnival on the island.

Must do's

28 Feb (Usual dates, check locally) Rethymno Carnival Crete's biggest carnival: weeks of themed parties, a treasure hunt and a huge parade through the town. 31 Oct (Usual dates, check locally) Chestnut Festival Roasted and boiled chestnuts, honey, pork and new wine in the chestnut villages of western Crete. 1 Aug (Usual dates, check locally) Kornaria Festival Theatre, concerts and exhibitions in the Venetian fortress of Sitia. 20 Jun (Usual dates, check locally) Cherry Festival A village celebration of the cherry harvest with sweets, raki and Cretan dancing. 4 Sep (Usual dates, check locally) Sardine Festival Free grilled sardines, local wine and dancing by the sea. 16 Aug (Usual dates, check locally) Sultanina (Raisin) Festival Piskokefalo celebrates the grape harvest with sweet wines and raisins. Guide Cretan food: what to eat Dakos, kalitsounia, staka, snails, gamopilafo and the dishes you have to try, region by region. Guide Cretan wine Native grapes, wine regions and how to visit wineries.

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Chania 10 Rethymno 4 Heraklion 18 Lasithi 0

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Good to know

  • Programmes are published only a few weeks before; check the municipality or the organiser.
  • Village festivals are busy after dark; parking can be far from the square.
  • Bring cash for the stalls and the tables.