El Cuchillo turns on a fortnight of fiesta: the full Fiestas del Pilar programme

Some fiestas last a night. Others last a fortnight. El Cuchillo, the village in Tinajo that sits between the lava fields and the road to La Santa, has gone for the second kind: the Fiestas del Pilar 2026 start on Monday 28 September and end on Monday 12 October, the feast day of the Virgen del Pilar.

In between there is everything, and nearly all of it free: Canarian bowls, card tournaments, macramé, dessert competitions, parrandas, a brand-new festival with food trucks, and a verbena that runs late. This is the kind of programme the inland villages of Lanzarote still know how to build.

Week one: games, cards and workshops

It opens on Monday 28 September with the children's bola canaria championship. Wednesday 30 brings the Taller de Empleita, where you learn to plait palm leaf the way it has always been done here: places are limited, booking by WhatsApp on 646 57 84 91. The workshop runs again on Thursday 1 October, alongside the chinchón and four-in-a-row championships.

On Friday 2 October the children get snakes-and-ladders and parchís; the adults get the mixed 2-v-2 ronda.

Saturday 3: the enyesque and the night of the parrandas

The first big night. Children's football in the day; at 8.30pm the enyesque canario — the table of home cooking — with the traditional recipes in the hands of Fefo Nieves and music from Gran Aldea. Then comes 'Entre cuerdas', the night of strings: Parranda La Aldaba, Parranda Tinasoria and Son del Norte. Timple, guitars and voices — in Tinajo this is not postcard folklore, it is how the village sings.

Sunday 4 has the children's kaizen and, at 7pm, the bingo and raffle.

Week two: hands-on

Monday 5 October is workshop day: 'Colour Roulette' and 'Three in a Row' for children, 'Trays With Charm' for adults. At 9.30am the walk for older residents sets off.

Tuesday 6: children's dessert competition and a macramé workshop for adults. Wednesday 7: 'Decorate your T-shirt' for the young ones, 'Make your own jewellery' for the grown-ups, plus another chinchón championship.

Thursday 8: children's gymkhana, and a dessert-and-tortilla contest for adults; at 8pm, another edition of Sabores de Tinajo, again with limited places.

The finale: Jolgorio Fest, comedians and verbena

Friday 9 October: the envite 2-v-2 championship and music from La Arrancadilla and DJ Diego Díaz.

Saturday 10 is this year's novelty. A chess tournament by day, then the first ever 'Jolgorio Fest El Cuchillo': crafts, food trucks and live music with DJ Álvaro, Asères, Sin cobertura, Clave 3 music and Grupo Arena. A village of a few hundred people inventing its own festival is worth the drive.

Sunday 11: the big children's party, then comedians Yanelis Hernández and Matías Alonso, and straight after the verbena with La Resistencia, DJ Diego Díaz and the orchestra Mambo con fuego.

Monday 12 October is the day of the Virgen del Pilar — the day the village really stops.

Getting there

El Cuchillo is a few minutes from the centre of Tinajo, on the road towards La Santa. Street parking is easy. From Arrecife, allow half an hour by car.