History of the Fancy Dress Party

The history of the Benidorm Fancy Dress Party began around the 1990s. This was due the Benidorm Half Marathon held on November 17 or 26 of each year, participants from  Great Britain began to congregate for this sports event, most of them  from the same Runners club.
The annual gathering of runners grew in numbers and as a result the Benidorm half marathon became extremely popular .
The reason behind wearing a fancy dress costume seems to be that it was the recreational sporty character of the British who began to run in these costumes for the half marathon. In true British spirit traditionally the British runners met to sing a couple of songs on the outside terraces of the Ambassador Playa Hotel having the perfect reason to celebrate their achievements in running and participating in the event which was a very happy ending to the day.
The half Marathon encouraged a great party atmosphere in all of the bars until the early hours of the morning in the Rincon de Loix area of Benidorm (some bars of the strip are the pioneers of these activities, like The Sinatras & Western Saloon). Following these years more and more tourists continue to arrive in Benidorm to celebrate this wonderful occasion. 

The Half Marathon originally coincided with dates of the British Miners Holiday together with the local Benidorm Fiestas celebrated in the Rincon de Loix area. Therefore all these factors greatly contributed to the success of the Fancy Dress Party.

This wonderful party increases year upon year originally in the early days of having just 80 participants which has now risen to be 35,000 people at the last count.

The Fancy dress parade is celebrated as the main day of the week of the local Benidorm Fiestas .This event is held being on the second or third Thursday of the month of November depending on the calendar.