9 de Octubre in Sagunto 2026: medieval market, City Medals and Panorama orchestra
The Medieval Market opens on Thursday 8 October, five people receive the City Medals on Friday 9, and the Panorama orchestra closes the day at 23:00 on Avenida Fausto Caruana.
The week leads up to 9 October, Valencian Community Day, but there is an event before the holiday: on Wednesday 7 at 19:00, journalist Máximo Pradera presents his talk “Memoria de un nieto confuso” at the Casal Jove (youth centre) in Puerto de Sagunto (coastal district). The Culture and Historical and Democratic Memory departments are behind it. It is not part of the specific holiday programme, which Culture has prepared with Festivals and Popular Culture and which adds to the department’s quarterly offer.
The Medieval Market opens on Thursday 8 at 18:00 and closes on Sunday 11. It is open from 10:00 to 14:00 in the morning and from 17:00 to 23:00 in the evening. Compared with 2025 it starts a day earlier: then it ran from Thursday 9 to Sunday 12, with the same time slots, in Plaza Cronista Chabret and the surrounding area. This year the announcement does not say where it is set up.
To put the event in perspective, it helps to look back. In 2015, as the Sagunto City Council reported at the time, the market brought together more than 150 stalls, 60 to 70 of them from local shops, spread over the Cronista Chabret, Mayor and Facundo Roca squares and the Castell, Dolors and Sang Nova streets. These figures are eleven years old, not from the current edition.
Friday morning, 9 October, opens with the City Medals, at 9:30 at the Casa Municipal de Cultura (municipal arts centre). Five people are honoured: Socoltie, the Unión Musical Porteña, the Falla Luis Cendoya (a Fallas festival neighbourhood association), Margarita Pín and Paqui Rondán. The medals for Socoltie and the Unión Musical Porteña came out of the ordinary council plenary session in August, unanimously, elperiodic.com reported on 7 August 2026; the decision pointed to presenting them, preferably, on 9 October.
The council gives the reason for each distinction. The Falla Luis Cendoya receives its medal for its historic record since 1927; according to valenciaextra.com, it is approaching its centenary, planned for 2027. Socoltie is honoured for its contribution to the social and employment inclusion of people with disabilities: according to elperiodic.com, it began activity in 1982, was formally constituted in 1983, has run an Occupational Centre for 45 people since 1984 and a Special Employment Centre created in 1986. The Unión Musical Porteña is recognised for a long and exemplary record of cultural and educational service; it was constituted in 2004 as a non-profit cultural association.
Pín and Rondán complete the group of five. Valenciaextra.com recalled on 4 September 2026 that Margarita Pín was a member of the Congress of Deputies for Valencia for four legislatures, between 1996 and 2011, and that in 2001 Paqui Rondán became the first woman to give the opening speech (pregón) of Sagunto’s patron-saint festivities.
The ceremony also changes venue and gains one more recipient. In 2025 it was held at the Centro Cultural Mario Monreal and the medal went to Victoria Civera, Marcelo Cuadros, Antonio Cosín and Ana Camarasa, four people; this year there are five recipients and the ceremony moves to the Casa Municipal de Cultura.
After the ceremony, Friday moves to the street. At 12:00 the city’s bells ring in the general peal carried out by Campaners de Morvedre (bell-ringers). The Falla La Victoria sets up a mascletà (daytime firecracker barrage) in Plaza Picasso at 14:00 and then a giant paella. In the evening, two Valencian dance events: Els Fallers in the Triángulo Umbral at 18:30 and, an hour later, the Grup de Danses Morvedre in Plaza Cronista Chabret.
The Panorama orchestra closes the day, at 23:00 at the Internúcleos space on Avenida Fausto Caruana. In 2025 it played at the same hour, but in front of the l’Epicentre shopping centre: the location of the big concert changes, not the time.
On Saturday 10 the Falla La Victoria brings live bands and food trucks to Plaza Picasso from 18:00. The Aragonese folk performances are scheduled for Monday 12: the Centro Cultural y Recreativo Aragonés takes the stage at the Teatro de Begoña at 12:30 and the Casa de Aragón performs in Plaza Cronista Chabret at 13:00.
According to the Sagunto City Council, with additional data from elperiodic.com, valenciaextra.com and council notes from 2015 and 2025.