thumb|227px|Tamborrada, kids section
thumb|227px|Tamborrada in [[San Sebastián]]
Tamborrada of Donostia () is a celebratory drum festival held every year on January 20 in the city of San Sebastián, Spain. At midnight, in the Konstituzio Plaza in the "Alde Zaharra/Parte Vieja" (Old Town), the mayor raises the flag of San Sebastián. The festival lasts for 24 hours. Participants, dressed as cooks and soldiers, march in companies across the city. The celebration ends at midnight, when people congregate at the Konstituzio Plaza and the
city flag is simultaneously lowered at various locations.
Origin and development
During the 19th century, as a walled military stronghold, the city of San Sebastián was subject to heavy property damage due to military activity, sometimes with dire consequences. This was especially true during the Siege of San Sebastián (1813), in which international powers (Spain, France, Great Britain, and Portugal) were involved. The war caused between 7,000 and 50,000 casualties.
thumb|Children's tamborrada practice in 1962
According to an urban legend, a baker was fetching water from a fountain during a drought in San Sebastián in 1720. As he began to sing, local women around him started pounding on their water basins to accompany him. To his surprise, the water kept on flowing and they kept on drumming with glee. Soon a crowd gathered. As the legend has it, there has not been a drought ever since, nor has the music of the barrels ever stopped playing.
The event was cancelled in 1902 and was revived in 1906, but remained the same way even up to the years of Francisco Franco's dictatorship, which banned Carnival statewide, but maintained the two iconic festivals of the city, the and the . To ensure the continuity of the city's traditions the first Children's Tamborrada was held in 1927, and has now become a permanent part of the festivities since 1961. From just only 3 in the 1920s, today there are over 125 clubs and organizations that have formations for the event. Since 1980, the ensembles are generally mixed gender formations.
Music
In 1861, local musician Raimundo Sarriegui composed the occasion's iconic marches, including the "March of San Sebastian",