Southern Spain is known for its festivals, fairs and celebration. Jerez de la Frontera is a city located in the province of Cadiz. Jerez is a city where sherry, flamenco and horses compete for top billing, but over these seven days in May the horses have no competition (even if the fair does also involve plenty of sherry and flamenco).

One of Andalusia’s biggest festivals, the Horse Fair attracts more than one million visitors and features music, dancing, bullfights and all kinds of horse competitions, from dressage through to polo.

This year the fair will be held from May 11 until May 18.

Each day there’s a colorful parade featuring hundreds of horses passing through the Parque González Hontoria fairgrounds in the north of the city, the aristocratic-looking male riders decked out in flat-topped hats, frilly white shirts, black trousers and leather chaps, and their female sideways pillion partners in flamenco-inspired dresses. Similar to Seville’s Feria de Abril, the fairgrounds are filled with more than 200 tents, though you’ll be free to visit these tents.