Spanish culture is widely known for flamenco and dance, bullfights, delicious cuisine, fantastic beaches and lots of sunshine. Yet it has much more to offer than that. Spain’s cultural characteristics vary from region to region, from city to city. And Málaga is no exception.

The Verdiales is a manifestation of popular culture of Málaga, a peasant culture that comes from centuries and it is difficult to establish the origin due to the lack of written documentation and historical references.

The Verdiales is a song and a dance which differs from flamenco, first, by the instruments used such as a large string and percussion accompaniment (violin, lute, guitar, cymbals and tambourine) denoting Arab influence, while flamenco accompanies guitar and palmas, the Verdial is a song made for dancing, where the brilliance of the singer is subject to the prom.

If we speak of singing, playing and dancing as a preflamenco manifestation, Verdiales or the Feast of Feasts,  as a collective manifestation of the village dates back to pre-Roman ancestry, as evidenced by the fact that the most important celebrations coincide with the winter solstice (Verdiales Festival) or the summer solstice (Midsummer).
The clothing of the Panda consists of the straw hat with the ornaments: mirrors, flowers, ribbons, beads, denoting the ancestral origin of the Feast of Verdiales, and is in line with what is used in other cultures such as the Greek Mediterranean.

Verdiales is configured as a leading cultural manifestation origined in Málaga and is a legacy (transmitted from parents to children) of pagan and religious, spiritual and joyful Mediterranean and European culture.