A first-timer's guide
Castillo San Miguel, round by round: what actually happens
The gate decides your colour, the banquet arrives in three courses, and the tournament builds through jousting and swords to a single champion — here is the shape of the night, in order.
See Castillo San Miguel tickets on GetYourGuide ↗The evening in order
| Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
| The gate | Seated by colour, long tables around the sand arena |
| The lists | Six knights, two colours, presented to the hall |
| The joust | Lances, dressage and falconry between passes |
| The banquet | Three courses, eaten entirely by hand |
| The champion | Sword combat decides the night's winner |
It starts with a colour, not a seat number
Guests are met at the gate of Castillo San Miguel and shown to long-table stands built around the sand tournament arena, grouped by colour rather than by name on a booking. There are two colours in play on any given night — one team of three knights rides under green, yellow and blue, the other under red, black and violet — and which side of the hall you land on is essentially chance, decided as you arrive rather than something you can pick in advance. It matters more than it sounds like it should: for the next two and a half to three hours, that colour is the side you're there to shout for, and the guests sitting either side of you are, for one evening, effectively your team.
The lists open with all six knights
Before the tournament proper gets underway, the two teams of three knights ride into the sand arena together to be introduced to the hall in full heraldic livery. This is the moment the room finds its voice for the first time — knights riding for one colour will often steer straight at the section wearing the other, in full armour on a moving horse, purely to provoke a reaction from the crowd. It sets the tone for the rest of the evening: this is a night built around taking a side and being loud about it, not a polite dinner show watched quietly from a fixed seat with your arms folded.
The joust is the fast, physical part
Mounted knights charge one another with lances across the length of the roughly 50-metre sand arena, the lances splintering on impact, with a Spanish horse dressage display and a falconry exhibition worked into the pauses between passes. This section moves quickly and is genuinely physical — the horses are doing real athletic work rather than standing patiently for the cameras, and the combination of jousting, dressage and birds of prey gives the tournament a wider range than a single repeated joust would. It's the closest the evening comes to feeling like a professional stunt show rather than dinner theatre.
Dinner runs alongside the tournament, not after it
The three-course banquet is served through the evening rather than as a separate sitting once the show ends: bread and drinks arrive as soon as you're seated, a cream of vegetable soup is drunk straight from the bowl for the first course, a whole roast chicken leg with baked potato follows and is pulled apart entirely by hand, and an ice-cream cake dessert closes the meal. No cutlery is set at any table for any course, by design rather than oversight, and wine, beer, water and soft drinks are topped up continuously rather than rationed to a single round.
Swords decide the champion, then the dancing starts
The tournament closes with sword combat between the strongest knights from each side, judged down to a single declared champion while both colour sections make as much noise as they can manage for their own knight. Once the result is called, the crowd's evening isn't quite over — guests move through to a separate ballroom for dancing and live music while the last of the wine is finished. Door to door, including the gate, the tournament, the full banquet and the dancing afterwards, the whole evening runs about two and a half to three hours.