Salamanca, with its student population that is impressive in terms of numbers and vitality, has created an innovation: La Nochevieja Universitaria (university New Year’s Eve), celebrated since 2008, when some students that weren’t willing to enjoy New Year’s without their friends from school began celebrating it on the last Thursday before winter break. This student New Year’s has become one of the city’s popular festivals, and it has even spread to other cities such as Zamora, where it is also a great success.
The small town of Berchules, located in the Granada side of the La Alpujarra region, has a curious New Year’s Eve tradition. In 1994, this town, which sits on the southern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range, experienced a power outage on New Year’s, and residents could not celebrate the occasion “in proper fashion”. But if there’s one verb that Spaniards know how to conjugate creatively, it’s “improvisar”. Since the unforeseen event deprived residents of their eagerly anticipated celebrations, they simply postponed the party, throwing it months later on the first weekend in August. New Year’s Eve in August has turned into a tourist attraction for Bérchules, where on that weekend the town’s 800 person population grows to 10,000.