The Rock of Gibraltar across the bay from a turquoise seawall in La Línea

Autumn across the Verja: what is on in Gibraltar this October and November, and why I would still do Halloween in La Línea

ByLa Línea Guide

Gibraltar’s autumn, seen from La Línea: a Halloween and midterm programme from 20 to 29 October, Bonfire Night at Little Bay Car Park on Thursday 5 November, and the Gibunco literary festival from 9 to 15 November. Since 15 July, the frontier has no routine checks.

I cross to Gibraltar for work, and I have never been to Bonfire Night or to National Day. A lot of people who work over there see Gibraltar the same way I do, as the workplace. We stop for a drink after work, and that is about it. The other thing I cross for is the cinema, because La Línea has no cinema, and if you want to see a film without going out to Palmones, Gibraltar is where you go.

So this is an events guide from someone who mostly skips the events. The dates below come from the organisers’ own announcements. The opinions are mine, from this side of the frontier.

On this page:
The dates in one place ·
Crossing for an evening event ·
Halloween on both sides ·
Bonfire Night at Little Bay ·
The literary festival ·
Is any of this ours? ·
Sources

The dates in one place

Everything below is from Gibraltar Cultural Services, who run the programme for the Ministry of Culture.

  • Tuesday 20 October, 6pm to 8pm: creative writing workshop for adults with the writer Jackie Anderson, at BookGem.
  • Saturday 24 October, 11am: Halloween storytelling with art activities for children, Mario Finlayson National Art Gallery, City Hall.
  • Tuesday 27 October, 11am: children’s Halloween workshop at GEMA with the artist Shane Dalmedo, making spooky puppets.
  • Wednesday 28 October: two Kitchen Studios workshops at the GEMA Gallery, a lantern workshop for families at 2pm and «A Murder Mystery» at 5:30pm.
  • Thursday 29 October: Halloween storytelling at GEMA at 11am, with a goodie bag for every child and fancy dress encouraged; in the evening, 6pm to 8pm, a Culture Crawl of the south end of Main Street.
  • Thursday 5 November, 6:30pm to 8:30pm: Bonfire Night at Little Bay Car Park.
  • Monday 9 to Sunday 15 November: the Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival.

Tickets for the Gibraltar Cultural Services events are on BuyTickets.gi. The two Kitchen Studios workshops sell through Gibkitchen.com.

Crossing for an evening event, now the fence is gone

The crossing used to be the first question for any evening in Gibraltar. It is not any more. On 15 July 2026 the treaty on Gibraltar’s future relationship with the EU started to apply provisionally, the frontier barrier was taken away and routine checks ended. There is no queue to plan your evening around.

Two small things are still worth a thought. The Government of Gibraltar said at the time that the new arrangements would have teething issues in the first period, so on a big night give yourself some margin. And Bonfire Night is at Little Bay, not on Main Street, so work out how you get there and back before you go. Our guides to what changed at the border on 15 July, to parking in La Línea before you cross and to taxis and Uber across the frontier cover the practical side from here.

Halloween on both sides: Gibraltar’s programme, and why I would stay in Spain

Gibraltar does a proper programme for children over the midterm week. Storytelling on Saturday 24 October at the national gallery in City Hall, a puppet workshop on the 27th, the Kitchen Studios lantern and murder-mystery sessions on the 28th, and another storytelling morning on the 29th. For adults there is Jackie Anderson’s writing workshop on the 20th, built around her non-fiction book Myth, Monster, Murderer, and the Culture Crawl on the evening of the 29th, which promises the darker and more mysterious side of the south end of town, with local history and street art. It is well organised and most of it happens before the 31st.

If I were taking a family, though, I would do Halloween in Spain. The Spanish adopted Halloween and they do it really well. People prepare, they buy the decorations, some decorate the whole house and throw a party. In neighbourhoods like La Atunara or Los Junquillos the children still go from door to door for sweets, the trick-or-treat. I have never learned what they call it in Spanish. It is nice here.

A palm-lined promenade in La Línea with the Rock of Gibraltar under cloud at dusk

Bonfire Night at Little Bay, Thursday 5 November

Bonfire Night runs from 6:30pm to 8:30pm at Little Bay Car Park, organised by Gibraltar Cultural Services with the Gibraltar Scouts Association. The evening has the «Best Guy» competition, live entertainment and food stalls. If you want to enter your own Guy there is a £5 participation fee, and all of it goes to GBC Open Day. Entry forms and the rules are at culture.gi/forms, and the events department answers on 200 67236 or at info@culture.gov.gi.

It falls on a Thursday, which is a working and school night on both sides. I have never been, so I cannot tell you what the crowd is like.

The literary festival, 9 to 15 November

The Gibunco Gibraltar International Literary Festival runs from Monday 9 to Sunday 15 November, its 12th edition, and tickets are on sale. The author list on the festival’s own site runs to some forty names, from Dame Prue Leith and Joanne Harris to the novelist Arturo Pérez-Reverte. Our festival guide has the line-up and how to go from La Línea.

Three events were added on 9 October, all at the Garrison Library on Tuesday 10 November. At 10am Richard Garcia gives a morning repeat of his Useless Mouths lecture on Gibraltarians in the Second World War, because the first one sold out. At noon Nhean Haynes de Domecq talks about Rock Cakes and Other Delights, recipes and family stories from the Saccone family notebooks. At 2pm Richenda Power, who spent her childhood in Gibraltar between 1956 and 1960, talks about The Clown and the Dancer, built on her parents’ letters from the Rock. Around the festival, CALLARTE puts local artists’ work into participating restaurants across Gibraltar from 2 to 15 November.

Does the festival feel like ours, in La Línea? I cannot answer that. I have not been.

Is any of this ours?

I think the people from La Línea who go to Gibraltar’s events are mostly the expats, the English speakers, because over there everything happens in English and it is a nice evening out. For the rest of us who cross in the morning, Gibraltar is where the work is. I did not cross for a single event last year.

What has changed is the walk. «There is no fence anymore.» For me it is still a drink after work and a film, because we have no cinema of our own. The rest of the calendar is a walk away for whoever wants it.

Sources

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