La Encamisá of Torrejoncillo 2026: Dates, Schedule and How to Watch

Schedule: what time is La Encamisá of Torrejoncillo 2026?

La Encamisá 2026 takes place on the night of Monday 7 December 2026 at the church of San Andrés and through the old town of Torrejoncillo (Cáceres, Spain), with La Pura on Tuesday 8 December. The start time has not been announced yet, so there is no confirmed time to convert yet; in December, mainland Spain is 6 hours ahead of US Eastern, 7 ahead of Mexico City and 4 ahead of Buenos Aires.

For reference only: in 2025 the banner left the church at 22:00 local time, according to that year's programme from the organising association. That is last year's time, not a confirmed La Encamisá of Torrejoncillo 2026 schedule.

The town council has confirmed the dates for the four main days. The news report we read, published on 12 November, gives no clock times for any of them.

One more date comes first. The Paladines association holds an extraordinary general assembly on Saturday 14 November in the Casa de Cultura (first call 21:00, second call 21:30 local time). The agenda in the council's notice of 29 October includes presenting the 2026 programme and poster and drawing this year's standard-bearer by lot.

We will update this page as soon as the official programme with times is out.

How to watch La Encamisá 2026

The TV and streaming plan for 2026 has not been announced. No broadcaster has published a schedule for this year.

What happened last year is a useful guide. In 2025, the Asociación Paladines de la Encamisá streamed the main events, including the night of La Encamisá, on its YouTube channel. Its website, laencamisa.org, showed the banner leaving and returning to the church in real time.

The 2025 programme also listed the local station Torrejoncillo Televisión as broadcasting the events. If the same plan is confirmed for 2026, those are the places to look, and we will add the links here.

Venue, tickets and getting in

La Encamisá is a street festival. It starts and ends at the parish church of San Andrés Apóstol, and the ride goes through the streets of the old town.

Tickets: none of the sources we opened lists tickets or prices for 2026. One Spanish festival guide lists the event as free with open access, and warns visitors to take care around the horses and the gunpowder.

Torrejoncillo is a small town in the north of the province of Cáceres, in Extremadura. The town council's rules for the 2026 poster contest, published in October, describe the festival as a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional (a regional tourism designation).

Practical points for a first visit:

• Arrive early. The streets around the church fill up well before the banner comes out.
• Dress for a cold December night and expect to stand for a long time.
• Expect noise. Shotgun salutes are fired in honour of the Virgin all along the route. Bring ear protection for children.
• Give the horses room. Stay on the pavement side, never walk behind a horse, and keep pushchairs out of the narrowest streets.
• Book a bed early. 8 December is a public holiday in Spain, so it is a busy long weekend.

The programme explained for a newcomer

This is not a competition. Nothing is scored, nobody is judged and there is no winner. It is a religious festival in honour of the Immaculate Conception, and each part has a job.

• The standard-bearer draw. In years when the Paladines association itself holds the mayordomía (the stewardship of the festival), as in 2026, its board draws the standard-bearer by lot among the members who signed up for the draw. Under the association's statutes the winner chooses the two members who carry the lanterns alongside, and the banner is carried by a male member: a woman who wins passes the right to a male member, and a man may also pass it on. In 2025, a year with volunteer mayordomos, the programme said a member of that year's mayordomía would carry it.
• Pregón. A guest speaker opens the festival with a speech. In 2025 it was held in the Casa de Cultura after the evening novena.
• Floral offering. Townspeople in traditional Torrejoncillo dress bring flowers to the Virgin.
• La Encamisá. The banner of María Inmaculada is brought out of the church on foot and handed, a few metres from the door, to the standard-bearer waiting on horseback. Riders wrapped in white sheets escort it through the town while shotgun salutes go off around them. In the 2025 programme the fireworks came at the end, before the banner went back into the church.
• La Pura. On 8 December, the feast day itself, there are traditionally two processions with the image of the Virgin: one after the solemn midday Mass and a longer one in the afternoon, when the novena ends. In 2025 they were listed at 12:00 and 16:30.

The 2025 programme had extra pieces around these: a cross-country run, a nine-day novena in the church, an alborá (dawn wake-up) at 06:00 on the 7th, and a children's day on the 9th. Of these, the run is already confirmed: the council has announced the Cross de La Encamisá for Sunday 13 December 2026 at 11:00 local time on the Dehesa Boyal circuit. Whether the others return in 2026, and at what times, is not confirmed yet.

The horses and riders: what is known so far

No riders have been named for 2026, and the standard-bearer is not yet known. That is decided at the 14 November assembly.

There is no entry list in the usual sense. A 2014 report in elDiario.es put the average at about 200 horses per edition, and noted that riders did not have to sign up in advance, which makes an exact count hard.

The look is what gives the festival its name. Riders cover themselves with white sheets edged with lace, some embroidered with stars, so the whole escort appears "encamisada" (shirted in white).

The tradition is usually dated to the 16th century. The best-known account links it to a promise made to the Virgin by soldiers from the town, though the origin is not documented in detail.

What it asks of a horse

For horse people, this is the interesting part. A horse in La Encamisá has to stand and walk calmly in narrow streets, at night, packed with people, with a flapping white sheet on its rider and gunfire close by.

That takes a steady temperament and slow, patient preparation. If you have ever worked on getting a horse used to sudden noise, you know it is built over weeks, not in a night. Our guide to horse behavior explains why horses react the way they do, and our safety pages cover the basics of being around horses in a crowd.

It belongs to a wider family of religious rides in the Spanish-speaking world. If the idea is new to you, start with what a cabalgata is.

What to watch for next

• 14 November: the Paladines assembly, with the standard-bearer draw and the presentation of the 2026 programme and poster.
• The official programme with times: it is due to be presented at that assembly; no separate date for publishing it online has been given. It should confirm the start time for the night of the 7th.
• The broadcast plan: whether the association's stream and the local TV coverage return for 2026.
• The run-up days: the pregón on 5 December and the floral offering on 6 December.
• The night itself: the moment the banner comes out of San Andrés is the one everybody waits for.

If you are going, check the town council's notices in the days before for traffic and safety measures. And tell us in the comments what it is like from the street or from the saddle.