What should visitors to southern Tenerife know first?
The festival programme is in Spanish. It says nothing about translation or other languages.
Visitors who do not understand Spanish should plan for that before they go.
What does the main festival in Los Silos offer?
The main festival opens on Friday 4 December 2026 in Los Silos, in north-west Tenerife. At 16:00 Palabras prisioneras starts with inmates of the Tenerife II prison, and the book fair opens at Calle Dr. Jordán 5.
The official opening follows at 18:00 in the patio of the former San Sebastián convent. Guest author Trifonia Melibea Obono from Equatorial Guinea gives a talk, and Humberto Hernández pays tribute to Antonio Lorenzo Ramos.
At 21:30 the Iglesia de La Luz stages the opening show Voces de cristal, manos de agua. The main guests include Rodolfo González from Costa Rica, Quico Cadaval from Galicia, Nicolás Buenaventura from Colombia, and Afonso Cruz and Rosa Gonçalves from Portugal.
The festival closes on Monday 7 December at 22:00 with the Ronda de narradores. Afonso Cruz speaks the closing words, and there is no official advice on how to get to Los Silos.
How much does entry cost, and do you need tickets?
The published programme gives no price. It marks sessions as free, free until the hall is full, or by invitation, which visitors collect at the information and sales point.
The information on tickets is contradictory. Some notes mention limited places with tickets through Tomaticket, but the official programme does not mention that service.
Anyone who wants to see a particular concert or show should check the official website first.
Who is behind the festival?
The director is Ernesto Rodríguez Abad, and the contact address is info@cuentoslossilos.es.
Sources disagree on the founding year: one says 1995, while Rodríguez Abad said in 2023, according to RTVC, that the festival had run “without interruption since 1996”. The 30th edition ran from 5 to 8 December 2025 with around 129 events.
According to a February 2023 report, the Observatorio de la Cultura of the Fundación Contemporánea named the festival a benchmark of Spanish culture for the fourth year running. It is known for unusual venues such as banana plantations, fincas (country estates), squares and old convents.
Reports on the 30th edition say more than 60 artists performed in 2025.
What is still open, and what comes next?
No figure turned up for the budget, either for costs or for funders. No subsidy was found in the BOC (the Canary Islands official gazette).
The MUCAT science fair also takes place in Granadilla in November, from 19 to 21 November on the Plaza de la Ermita de San Isidro. It has nothing to do with storytelling.
The main festival in Los Silos follows from 4 to 7 December 2026. The full programme is on the official website.