El Llamador, the Seville Holy Week pocket guide: what it is, what is inside and what is missing for 2026
In Seville's Holy Week, "llamador" means two things: Canal Sur Radio's programme, with its free pocket guide, and the metal knocker the foreman strikes to lift the float. This page explains both, with what the guide contains and what could not be found of the 2026 edition.
Anyone looking for "El Llamador" during Holy Week (Semana Santa) is almost always after Canal Sur Radio's pocket guide, with the timings and route of each brotherhood. The word also names something else: the metal knocker on the front of the float (the paso), which the foreman strikes so the bearers underneath (the costaleros) lift it.
This page explains both, opens the guide with a real edition and says what could not be traced for 2026. Holy Week that year ran from 29 March to 5 April 2026.
What is El Llamador?
It is Canal Sur Radio's Holy Week programme, and by extension the printed booklet that goes with it. The 2023 edition says so on its credits page: "Canal Sur Radio's 2023 Holy Week programme", with the rights in the broadcaster's name.
The booklet is free and carries the printed words "not for sale". The 2023 edition can be read on the Seville tourist board website: El Llamador, Semana Santa de Sevilla 2023 (PDF, in Spanish). One of the summaries consulted presents it as a minute-by-minute alert service, something a printed booklet cannot be by definition.
What does the guide contain, brotherhood by brotherhood?
Each brotherhood has its own page: church and address, year of foundation, a short history, the sculptor of each image, the foremen, the music and the number of bearers per float. Below come the times it passes La Campana, the square, the Puerta de Palos and its return to the church.
Each page ends with a line of three figures that no other guide brings together like this: nazarenos (the robed penitents), minutes and members. The programme does not explain what the minutes measure; the most likely reading is the time the whole procession takes to pass a given point.
| Brotherhood (2023 edition) | Nazarenos, minutes and members |
|---|---|
| La Macarena, Madrugá | 3,000 nazarenos, 101 minutes and 16,800 members |
| La Esperanza de Triana, Madrugá | 3,000 nazarenos, 83 minutes and 14,000 members |
| El Gran Poder, Madrugá | 2,500 nazarenos, 71 minutes and 12,000 members |
| La Mortaja, Good Friday | 350 nazarenos, 19 minutes and 1,300 members |
The difference is the useful part: if the minutes are the passing time, La Macarena fills a street corner for more than an hour and a half and La Mortaja for under twenty minutes. These are 2023 figures; those for 2026 do not appear in the sources consulted.
A brotherhood page tells you who carved each image; a guided tour shows it to you in its church. Tours on the brotherhood theme through La Macarena, Triana or the centre can be compared with the rest of Seville's activities in one catalogue.
See guided tours and activities in Seville →Affiliate link: booking through it helps keep this guide going, and costs you nothing extra.Is there a 2026 edition of El Llamador?
None has been traced. The 2023 edition is on the Seville tourist board website and a 2025 one circulates on a document-sharing platform, but no source consulted links to a 2026 copy.
The official alternative for 2026 is the pocket programme of the Council of Brotherhoods (PDF, in Spanish), a pocket version of the official schedule. Google Play also has an app called El Llamador, whose publisher could not be linked to Canal Sur.
One mistake to avoid: one of the summaries consulted presents the 6:00 and 7:00 times in the 2023 guide as the programme's broadcast hours. They are the first departures of TUSSAM city buses during Holy Week, the same pattern as in 2026: at 6:00 on Holy Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and at 7:00 on the other days.
What 2026 timings did the press publish?
El País's programme of 27 March 2026 gives, brotherhood by brotherhood, the same information as the timing section of El Llamador. Three examples from Palm Sunday and the Madrugá (the small hours of Good Friday):
- La Hiniesta: leaves at 13:45, La Campana at 17:01, the cathedral at 18:26 and the Virgin's float returns at 23:45.
- El Amor: leaves at 20:15, La Campana at 21:16, the cathedral at 22:41 and the Virgin's float returns at 0:56.
- El Silencio: leaves at 0:45, La Campana at 1:40, the cathedral at 2:21 and the second float returns at 6:05.
These are planned times: rain, a build-up of delays or a change of route moves them on the day. The time slots for every day are in the Holy Week 2026 timetable guide, and the street-by-street routes in the 2026 route guide.
With the guide in hand, choose your hotel by the brotherhood you want to see leave its church, not by the official route. Holy Week 2027 is expected from 21 to 28 March 2027, and the centre fills up months ahead.
See places to stay for the Holy Week dates →Affiliate link: booking through it helps keep this guide going, and costs you nothing extra.What is the llamador on a float?
It is the metal knocker fixed to the front of the float. The foreman strikes it to give the order to the bearers, who walk underneath without seeing the street: the lift (the levantá) or the halt.
The radio programme takes its name from it. Old knockers are also sold second-hand on classified ad sites, with no source publishing reference prices.
Still unpublished about El Llamador
- A copy of the 2026 edition, nor its date or distribution points.
- The print run of any edition, nor how many copies are given away.
- What exactly the minutes measure on each brotherhood page.
- The publisher of the app with the same name on Google Play.
To follow the week without paper, the guide to following Holy Week remotely gathers maps and broadcasts, and the one on the PDF programmes compares the official 2026 documents.
Outside Holy Week, the brotherhood churches can be visited without the crowds and the centre costs half as much. A three-star hotel costs between €90 and €150 a night outside the peaks, according to the 2026 guides.
Compare places to stay in Seville →Affiliate link: booking through it helps keep this guide going, and costs you nothing extra.Sources
- Canal Sur Radio: El Llamador, Semana Santa de Sevilla 2023, published on the Seville tourist board website in March 2023 (brotherhood pages, passing times, TUSSAM service).
- Consejo General de Hermandades y Cofradías (General Council of Brotherhoods): 2026 pocket programme.
- El País: Seville Holy Week programme, dates, timings and routes, 27 March 2026.
- Visita Sevilla: Holy Week 2026, document updated on 2 June 2026. Semana-santa.org: calendar, updated on 23 August 2026.
- Scribd: El Llamador 2025, document uploaded by a user. Google Play: El Llamador app.
The figures on the brotherhood pages come from the 2023 edition, the only one consulted directly. The 2026 timings are those planned before the week.
Frequently asked questions
What is El Llamador in Seville's Holy Week?
Where can you get the 2026 El Llamador?
How long does La Macarena take to pass?
What is the llamador on a Holy Week float?
Rocío Delgado
Rocío grew up in the San Lorenzo neighbourhood and follows Holy Week from the madrugá, not from the stands. She knows the corners where you can watch a paso go by without waiting three hours, and the streets that close without warning. She never recommends a spot she has not stood in herself.
