Día de Nuestra Señora de Las Nieves, patrona de La Palmaverified
On 5 August La Palma stops the clock: it is an island-wide public holiday, and all fourteen towns climb up to the Real Santuario de Las Nieves in turn to see their patron saint. Solemn Mass at 11:30, procession at 13:00.
5 August is a public holiday across La Palma, and from early morning each of the fourteen towns has its own fixed slot to climb up to the Real Santuario Insular de Nuestra Señora de Las Nieves in Santa Cruz de La Palma and see their patron saint on her feast day. It is a way of spreading out the crowds that repeats fiesta after fiesta, and it turns the climb into something the whole island shares.
The sanctuary opens at six in the morning. The main celebration, in the square in front of it, is the solemn Mass at 11:30, led this year by the bishop of the Diocese of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, Eloy Alberto Santiago Santiago, with the Agrupación Los Arrieros singing. At one in the afternoon the image is carried in procession around the sanctuary, with the Los Llanos de Aridane music band and that town's offering. At ten at night, a final procession closes the grounds.
The offerings continue all month: on the 9th the motorcycle clubs of La Palma, on the 12th Cáritas and the catechists, on the 15th the «CAVFA» buglers and drummers, on the 16th the Hermandad del Santísimo and the island's hikers, on the 23rd firefighters, NGOs and volunteers, and on the 30th the Hermandad de Custodios de la Virgen.