An evening of live entertainment, affordable food and family-friendly celebrations will once again bring the local community together.

Patron saint celebration returns

Velez-Malaga will once again come together celebrate its patron saint with the II Verbena de la Patrona (Patron Saint Festival), taking place on Saturday, August 15, at the Explanada del Cerro in the historic town centre. Organisers confirms a full evening of entertainment, with performances beginning at 8.30pm and continuing in true Spanish style until well after midnight. Put together by the local religious brotherhood, the cheery annual event gives attendees a chance to relax, eat, drunk and socialise while fundraising at the same time.

Evening programme packed with music and dance

Opening the event at 8.30pm will be the Elsa Guerra Dance Academy, followed at 9.30pm by performances from the Cristina Gallardo Dance Academy. Live music will begin at 10.30pm with the talented singer Benito Garcia, before Spanish group Ñ Clan headline the celebrations from midnight. Keeping your feet tapping throughout the evening will be DJ Palomares providing the tunes into the early hours.

Food, drink and scratch-and-win prizes

Visitors will also find a bar serving food and drinks at affordable prices, Another attraction will be the popular “Rasca y Gana” scratch-and-win raffle, where hundreds of prizes donated by local businesses will be available.

Organisers say more than 50 local companies, shops and commercial sponsors have contributed to this year’s festival. Their support has helped make the event possible and reflects strong backing from the wider Velez-Malaga business community.

Community support at the centre of the festivities

Much more than a night of entertainment, the festival serves as a fundraising and social event for the religious brotherhood responsible for organising celebrations connected to the town’s patron saint. Scheduled for August 15, on a public holiday and major religious feast day across Spain, the II Verbena de la Patrona is a wonderful opportunity for residents to support local traditions.

Fortune smiled on a lottery ticket holder in Velez-Malaga after Friday’s EuroMillions draw delivered a second-category prize worth €112,479. Staff at the Administracion de Loterias Virgen de Lourdes lottery shop on Calle Cristo confirmed the winning slip that matched five main numbers plus one Lucky Star.

Winning numbers drawn were 26, 29, 35, 38 and 47, with stars 1 and 2. Only one first-category ticket (five numbers plus both stars) appeared across Europe, and that landed in Belgium, scooping a jackpot of €111,058,174. Spain produced two second-category winners in total; the other ticket was sold in Oropesa del Mar in Castellon.

Axarquia and Malaga Province keeps the good luck rolling

This latest payout continues a decent run for Malaga province. Earlier in the week an El Millon code worth one million euros was sold at Administracion number 10 in Estacion de Cartama on Avenida Andalucia. That earlier success already had local players talking, and Friday’s result in the Axarquia has only added to the chatter.

El Millon itself went to a ticket in Teia, Barcelona, on this occasion. Code FDB34577 was the lucky one. Next Tuesday’s draw will open with a guaranteed first-category fund of €17 million, so plenty of players will be back at the counters hoping the streak continues.

What the numbers mean for Spanish players

Second-category prizes of this size remain relatively rare and always generate local excitement when they land in smaller towns. Velez-Malaga’s central lottery shop on Calle Cristo has now joined the short list of outlets that have handed out six-figure EuroMillions cheques this summer. Official results and full prize breakdowns are published by Loterias y Apuestas del Estado and can be checked on the SELAE website.

Players still holding tickets from Friday have three months to claim any winnings. With the jackpot reset to a more modest level, many will view the next few draws as a good time to play again without the pressure of a massive rollover. Whether the next big Spanish win lands in the Axarquia or further afield remains to be seen, but Friday’s result has given one Velez-Malaga resident a very welcome boost.

Anyone wanting the full European prize table or past results can find them on the official EuroMillions results pages or the Loterias y Apuestas del Estado website. Local lottery shops across Malaga province continue to report steady interest as the summer draws roll on.