The Squid Festival or how to enjoy Salou in November

If you ask yourself what to do in Salou in November the answer is easy because November is the month of squid par excellence in Salou, and for this reason it is essential to enjoy the Squid Festival, which this 2025 turns 50, and the Squid Gastronomic Days, to taste delicious dishes with this cephalopod mollusc as the main ingredient.

The Squid Festival is held from November 24 to 29, 2025, both included, and focuses on a squid fishing contest in which fishermen, retired or amateurs, who have a boat for the fishing of this mollusc can participate.

Every afternoon the boats will leave the Yacht Club of Salou at 3:15 p.m. and will return at 6:30 p.m. with the fishing of the day. Each boat will score points according to the fishing achieved during the week and will win the one that obtains the highest score.

It is expected that this year on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Squid Festival the participation of last year will be exceeded, when 32 boats and 113 fishermen who captured 731 squid, with a weight of almost 154 kilos, participated in the contest.

On Sunday, November 30, 2025, in the restaurant of the Nautical Salou, will take place the awards ceremony to the participants. Apart from the prize for the boat with more points, the one that captures the largest squid will also be rewarded, with an award given by the Yacht Club. 

For its part, the Sports Fishing Society of Salou will give the prize to the largest capture of squid. Also, trophies will be distributed to the patron of each category and a commemorative memory will be given to the rest of the participants. 

Celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Squid Festival

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Squid Festival, different activities have been organized. The program is as follows:

• November 22, 2025, at 12 noon, Meeting of Marine Festive Elements, which will depart from the Plaza de las Comunitats Autònomes, and will tour the Jaume I promenade to the Espigó del Moll.
• November 29, 2025, at 1 p.m., in the Espigó del Moll, Squid tasting, for the modest price of 2 euros.
• from 1 to 19 December 2025, in the Hall of the Auditorium Theatre of Salou (TAS), commemorative exhibition of the 50th anniversary of the Squid Festival.

The Squid Festival is one of the oldest in Salou and has an eminently playful character, and with symbolic trophies, which also recalls the seafaring past of the capital of the Costa Dorada. Recently, the Center of Studies Salouencs has recovered images of the first awards ceremony of the Conscurso del Calamar in 1975, 50 years ago.

At the same time, lovers of good cuisine can enjoy menus and tasting dishes in the establishments participating in the Gastronomic Days of the Squid of Salou, from November 28th to December 14th, 2025, which is celebrated as a complement to the Squid Festival.

Squid, star dish in 12 restaurants in Salou