A judge in Málaga has ordered provisional imprisonment without bail for a 29-year-old man accused of stabbing a 23-year-old during the Feria de Málaga. The incident took place at about 4:15 a.m. on a Monday in the attractions area of the Real Cortijo de Torres, the city’s basic fairground.
The suspect, who manages a cocktail stand at the fair, declined to testify before Instruction Section No. 1 of the Tribunal de Instancia de Málaga, information from the Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía. He is being investigated for attempted homicide after allegedly attacking the victim with a machete and causing serious injuries to the left side of his chest. The victim was taken urgently to hospital, where the National Police described his condition as serious.
Police sources said the suspect was found later that morning in a caravan near the fairground. Investigators are examining whether the confrontation began after the victim, who did not work at the fair, tried to approach a woman believed to be the suspect’s partner. The alleged motive remains one line of inquiry. The suspect’s decision not to testify is a procedural development; it does not establish guilt, and the case remains at the investigation stage.
Fair security operations elsewhere in Málaga province offer a point of comparison, but not a measure of the deployment at the Feria de Málaga. At the 2026 Feria y Fiestas de San Pedro Alcántara, more than 200 personnel were deployed daily, while 29 surveillance cameras monitored the grounds from a coordination and command centre. The operation involved local and national police, firefighters, civil-protection teams, private security and Guardia Civil traffic units.
A separate case from Fuengirola shows how assault proceedings at a fair can lead to large penalties. The Tribunal Superior de Justicia de Andalucía upheld a three-year prison sentence over a 2022 horse-fair attack in which a woman struck another woman in the face with a glass. The ruling also included €44,822 in compensation and a six-year ban on approaching or contacting the victim, with a 500-metre restriction. Those sanctions relate only to the Fuengirola case and do not apply to the Málaga stabbing, in which no final judgment has been reached.
