In Bosa there are three main festivals during the year: the Carnival, Santa Maria del Mare and Regnos Altos.
The Carnival of Bosa is, with no doubt, the most involving, trasgressive and funny festival throughout the year.
The most busy days are the conventional days of the carnival: on the Fat Thursday a parade of carts is held; on the Saturday there is the celebration of the cellars and many of these, located in the ancient town, are open to the public; the last day of the Carnival is the Fat Tuesday and this is the day of the two most known happenings of this festival.
The first happening is "S'Attitidu" when people get dressed in black in the morning and walk around crying and asking the ladies from the public for a tip of milk. This happening has an heavy sexual background.
The second happening is called "Giolzi" and starts in the evening. People at Giolzi get dressed in white with bed linens and run around the town centre in groups looking for the king of the Carnival, Giolzi infact.
More or less every group has a puppet representing the king and at some point in the night, the puppet is burned on the roads. These fires state the end of the Carnival.
Visitors coming to Bosa upon the Carnival get intimately involved in this festival as they are part of the crowd laughing and drinking in a very happy mood, not certainly acting as a spectator.
The hospitality and generosity of the people from Bosa is shown in its fullness: fried cakes are distribuites to everyone together with traditional Sardinian pastry and the excellent local wine.
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The festival dedicated to the "Madonna del Mare", the Virgin of the Sea, is held on the first Sunday of August. The origins of this festival come from the finding made by local fishermen of a statue of the Holy Mary which may have been a figurehead of some ship wreck. This is statue was then taken to the Church of St Paul in Bosa Marina.
During the festival, an attracting parade of boats flows on the river Temo and one of them takes the statue from Bosa Marina to the Cathedral in Bosa.
In the evening, the statue is taken back to its usual site. During the Sunday night, Bosa Marina hosts a market with products of many kinds.
The end of the festival is marked by a show of fireworks on the main beach and spectators are delighted by enchanting showers of lights in the dark sky
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On the second Sunday of September the festival of "Nostra Signora di Regnos Altos" is held. This festival is in honour of the Holy Mary of the church of the Castle Malaspina. During the days preceding the event, the roads of the old town "Sa Costa", located below the castel, are dressed with reeds and braches while small altars with the Holy Mary on them are set up.
The altars are also embellished with typical covers sewed with the technique known as filet. During these nights typical local food is served along the roads of "Sa Costa".
The festival attracts visitors from all over the island and is introduced by musical shows, itinering scenes and parades of people wearing the old dresses of the town.
A very funny event not to be missed is also the rapresentation of scenes of life coming from the medievals days.
On the saturday, the party goes on all night long and the festival finishes on the Sunday when the holy mass is celebrated in the Church of the Castle.
