Written by Carmen Ramírez, manager and licensed tourist guide at Alcázar Seville Tour. Monument hours checked against the Alcázar’s published calendar; operating days from our own booking system. Verified on 10/19/2026.
Quick Answer
April is Seville’s bridge month, and what lands in it changes every year. In 2027 only the Feria falls in April — from Tuesday 13 to Sunday 18, with the alumbrao at midnight on Monday 12. Semana Santa was three weeks earlier, in March.
Two things make April different from every other month. The two weeks behave in opposite ways: Holy Week closes monuments and stops tours, the Feria closes almost nothing. And from 1 April the Alcázar switches to summer hours and stays open until 19:00, instead of the 17:00 closing it keeps from October to March.
The rule that matters for the whole month: April is high season from the 1st to the 30th. It does not have a quiet half. Monument tickets routinely run out several days ahead, in every stretch of the month, Feria or no Feria. If your travel dates are already fixed, book the Alcázar and the Cathedral as soon as you have them — not when you land, not the week before. See what to book in advance in Seville.
Why April is a different month every year
Seville has two great spring festivals, and only one of them has a fixed date.
The Feria is always in spring, roughly two weeks after Easter. Semana Santa moves with Easter, which can fall anywhere from late March to late April. So depending on the year you get:
Both in April — the busiest and most expensive version of the month
Only the Feria in April — Semana Santa fell in March. This is 2027.
That is why a guide to “Seville in April” written for one year can be wrong for the next. In 2027 there are two clear weeks between the two festivals, and April itself has only one of them.
The detail you will notice if you come at Easter
The Feria fairground starts going up before the new year. By the time Holy Week arrives it is practically finished — more than a thousand casetas, the streets laid out, the great entrance gate standing. And it sits there, built and silent, across the river, while the city is in Lent and the processions fill the centre.
It is one of the strangest and most Sevillian things you can see, and it lasts only a few weeks.
1 April: the Alcázar stops closing early
This is the practical change that matters most, and almost no guide mentions it.
From 1 April — summer hours, open until 19:00
Two extra hours changes what fits into a day. In winter, an afternoon slot at the Alcázar means rushing before closing and losing the gardens in the last light. From April you can take a late slot without watching the clock, and the gardens in the hour before closing are the best they get all year.
If you only have one full day in Seville, April is the first month of the year where that day actually works.
1–9 April: the European Easter holidays
Easter Sunday 2027 is 28 March, so the first days of April are the tail of the school break across Europe. The processions are over, the Semana Santa crowd has gone home, and a different one arrives: families.
The weather is at its best stretch of the year. The orange blossom is mostly finished — that is a March thing — but the Alcázar gardens are at their peak, and now you can stay in them until seven.
Booking rule: two to three weeks ahead.
10–11 April: the pre-feria weekend
The Feria has not officially started, but the fairground already has life. The weekend before the alumbrao is known locally as the pre-feria: casetas opening up, families testing the ground, and a lot of atmosphere without the full crowd.
For a visitor it is arguably the best value of the whole fortnight — you get the Feria’s atmosphere without Feria hotel prices, and the monuments are not yet at their fullest.
Booking rule: two to three weeks ahead.
12–18 April: Feria week
The Feria is not a street festival that takes over the centre. It is a walled fairground on the other side of the river, in Los Remedios, with its own streets, its own lighting and more than a thousand casetas. That geography is the most useful thing to understand about it.
The week, day by day
Tuesday 13 to Sunday 18 April — the Feria
Wednesday 14 April — local holiday · we do not run tours
Sunday 18 April — the fireworks that close it
Why Feria week is not Semana Santa
This is where most travellers get it wrong, and it changes your plans.
During Semana Santa the monuments change their hours and close on some days, and the processions take the centre from the afternoon onwards. During the Feria, the Alcázar, the Cathedral and the Giralda keep their normal hours all week — which in April means until 19:00. The fairground is across the river and everything there runs from midday to dawn, so the historic centre is yours in the morning.
Our own calendar says the same: in April 2027 we run every single day except Wednesday 14.
For the Feria itself — the casetas, which ones you can walk into, how to get there and what people get wrong — we wrote that separately in our Feria de Abril guide.
Booking rule: three to four weeks ahead. Hotels are the real constraint that week, not monuments.
19–30 April: the city calms down, the monuments do not
The fairground comes down and the city exhales. The event crowd goes home, the streets feel normal again, and the weather is excellent with long days.
What does not change is the monuments. April ends in high season exactly as it began, and Alcázar and Cathedral tickets keep running out several days ahead through to the 30th and into May. The calm you feel in the street is not calm in the ticket system — that is the mistake visitors make in this stretch, because the city looks easy and the tickets are not.
Booking rule: two to three weeks ahead. The same as the start of the month.
The weather, honestly
Seville gets more than 300 days of sun a year, and the rain comes in long gaps — the city’s reservoirs are built around exactly that pattern, filling in a few wet months and carrying the city for years.
April is the exception to that calm. It is the least predictable month of the Seville spring: it can turn genuinely warm, and it can also rain for several days in a row. Neither is unusual.
Average low — 12–14 °C
Rain — 5–7 days, often grouped together
Daylight — around 13h30 by month end
Alcázar — open until 19:00 from the 1st
What this means in practice: pack a layer and something waterproof even if the forecast looks perfect a week out, and do not build your whole trip around one outdoor afternoon.
If everything is already gone
April is the month this happens most. The Alcázar sells out, the Cathedral sells out, and the dates are fixed because the flights are booked.
The Alcázar will have to wait for another trip — but Seville does not end at its gates. A private walking tour of monumental Seville is 2.5 hours with your own guide, from the Alcázar walls to the Cathedral façades, the Archivo de Indias, the Santa Cruz quarter, Plaza de España and the river. No tickets needed, and it can be booked for the following day.
A month-at-a-glance plan
10 – 11 April — pre-feria weekend — book 2–3 weeks ahead
12 – 18 April — Feria week — book 3–4 weeks ahead
14 April — local holiday — no tours
19 – 30 April — still high season — book 2–3 weeks ahead
There is no week in April where you can safely leave it to the last minute. If your dates are fixed, the right time to book the Alcázar and the Cathedral is now.
Frequently asked questions
When is the Feria de Abril 2027?
From Tuesday 13 to Sunday 18 April 2027, with the alumbrao at midnight on Monday 12 — technically the early hours of Tuesday. The Feria always falls roughly two weeks after Easter, and Easter 2027 is 28 March.
Is Semana Santa in April 2027?
No. In 2027 Holy Week is in March, from 21 to 28. The dates move every year with Easter, so some years both festivals fall in April, some years only one, and some years the Feria slips into May.
What time does the Alcázar close in April?
At 19:00. From 1 April the Alcázar changes to summer hours; between October and March it closes at 17:00.
Do the monuments close during the Feria?
No. The Alcázar, the Cathedral and the Giralda keep their normal hours throughout Feria week. That is the main difference with Semana Santa, which does close them on some days.
Do you run tours during the Feria?
Yes, every day of that week except Wednesday 14 April, which is a local holiday in Seville.
What is the pre-feria?
The weekend before the official opening, when the fairground already has atmosphere and casetas start operating. In 2027 that is 10 and 11 April.
Is the Feria held in the city centre?
No. It takes place in a walled fairground in Los Remedios, on the other side of the river. The historic centre carries on as normal, which is why mornings are a good time to visit the monuments that week.
Does it rain in Seville in April?
It can. Seville gets more than 300 days of sun a year, but April is the least predictable month of the spring: five to seven days of rain across the month, often grouped into runs of several days.
How far in advance should I book the Alcázar for April?
Two to three weeks for most of the month and three to four for Feria week. April is high season from the 1st to the 30th, with no quiet stretch, so if your dates are already fixed the right answer is to book as soon as you have them.
Planning the visit itself
Whichever stretch you choose, the three great monuments are the same three: the Royal Alcázar, the Cathedral and the Giralda. Our Alcázar, Cathedral & Giralda guided tour covers all three in one route of around three hours, with official entry to each included in the booking — which means we buy the tickets the day you book, not the week you travel.
In April that distinction is the difference between seeing them and not.
Carmen Ramírez · manager
Carmen Ramírez is the manager of Alcázar Seville Tour and a licensed tourist guide in Seville, holding an Advanced Technical Diploma in Tourist Guidance, Information and Assistance. Since 2022 she has run the day-to-day booking operation for the Royal Alcázar, Seville Cathedral and the Giralda, which means she sees first-hand how far ahead each date sells out, which time slots close first, and what actually goes wrong when travellers book. She guides in english and spanish. Official Andalusian tourist guide licence no. 2931. Carmen writes the articles on availability, ticket rules and what to book in advance — the questions where the official monument websites stop short.
knowsAbout: Royal Alcázar ticket availability · Seville Cathedral tickets · named tickets and ID requirements · advance booking in Seville · sold-out dates · tour operations in Seville