The reason to time a trip to Lucban is the Pahiyas Festival on 15 May, the feast day of San Isidro Labrador, patron saint of farmers. On this one day, residents of Lucban decorate the facades of their houses with vivid displays of fruit, vegetables, woven palm, handicrafts, and most distinctively kiping — large, leaf-shaped, translucent wafers made from rice flour in pink, green, yellow, orange. A prize is awarded for the best-decorated house, and the procession of the San Isidro image winds through streets carpeted in flowers.
Pahiyas day draws very large crowds; the town's population effectively doubles. Accommodation in Lucban itself sells out months in advance — many visitors stay in Tayabas or Lucena and travel up for the day, or join an organised day trip from Manila. The day before the festival is when houses are being decorated, and is in some ways more atmospheric than the day itself.
Outside festival week, the town has a temperate climate thanks to its 270-metre elevation: cooler and less humid than the lowlands. The rainy season runs June to October; typhoons can affect Quezon Province in this period.