Sheep and goats detour around Madrid housing camp at Transhumance Festival

A festival rerouted around the camp

The 33rd edition of the Transhumance Festival took place on Sunday, 25 October 2026, with 1,250 sheep and 160 goats walking through central Madrid, guided by members of the Fundación Trashumancia y Naturaleza. The classic route reaches the zero-kilometre point at Cibeles, but the housing camp at Puerta del Sol made that stretch impractical this year. El Mundo reports that the organisers had talked with the camp's managers in the week of 19 October, hoping to secure a path through the square, but the city council disagreed and altered the itinerary. Sources differ on the starting point, with ABC placing it at Casa de Campo while La Razón and La Vanguardia name the Puente del Rey.

A symbolic payment in the Plaza de la Villa

Around midday, Borja Carabante, the city council's delegate for urban planning, environment and mobility, welcomed the shepherds, herdsmen and ranchers at the Plaza de la Villa. After the 1418 concord between the Mesta and the Concejo de la Villa was read aloud, he symbolically received the 50 maravedís per thousand head that shepherds once paid to use drove roads and cross municipal lands. ABC notes that the agreement was signed on 2 March 1418. Groups in regional dress, musicians and traditional dancers performed during the ceremony.

Public anger behind the camp

La Razón describes the housing camp as illegal and about a month old, and says it forced the festival off its usual path. The protests gathered pace last month after an eviction in central Madrid, in which an 87-year-old woman was removed from the flat where she had lived for seven decades and died in hospital shortly afterwards. The camp has become the backdrop to a festival that otherwise celebrates rural tradition. The organisers did not cancel the procession, and the flock kept to a shorter course through the historic centre.

Crowds and the case for the tradition

Europa Press counted thousands of people along the route, while El Mundo described tens of thousands watching the procession. A visitor who grew up near livestock in a village in Cáceres said the countryside still exists and asks for its place. Manuel Bahíllo, secretary general of the Fundación Trashumancia y Naturaleza, told El Mundo that the route was shorter but authentic, and that the foundation had also diverted the procession in 2022.

We champion the role of this type of livestock farming in protecting and increasing biodiversity, preventing fires and encouraging rural populations to settle.

Julio de la Losa, a shepherd who has taken part in every edition, said the exact path mattered less than public awareness.

It does not matter which way we go, what matters is that people understand what transhumance means.

A tradition in decline

The Independent notes that transhumance has declined since rural populations began leaving the countryside around 1950. Madrid has held the festival since 1994, when conservationist Jesús Garzón, now deceased according to El Mundo, revived the sheep procession through the city. La Razón reports that the initiative seeks recognition of transhumance as a Bien de Interés Cultural and a stronger public profile for livestock farming in a difficult economic context.