Virgen Blanca Festivities, Vitoria-Gasteiz

Vitoria-Gasteiz is the second largest city in the Basque Country and also its administrative capital. It's located between the coastal cities of Bilbao and San Sebastian but 30 miles inland, so a long drive away. Travellers thus generally ignore it in favour of the better known tourist traps but that would be a mistake, especially if you turn up at festival time like I did. I have rarely seen quite so many people having quite so much fun for quite so long quite so late, and I merely turned up on Day Four. From the smallest village to the largest city, all Basque communities have a festival of some kind. Vitoria-Gasteiz has two, kicking off at the end of April to celebrate San Prudencio, the patron saint of the province of Álava. But they go really big in summer for the city's patron, the Virgen Blanca, whose six day bonanza sees everyone hit the streets for an imbalanced mix of religion and revelry. Day 1 is always August 4th (whatever the day of the week), and not a lot of work gets…