Robert HardingA photographic tour of Barcelona’s most extravagant street festival
Barcelona’s spectacular La Mercè Festival – the city’s largest street party – kicks off at the end of this week (20th-24th September 2013). Held every September in honour of the Patron Saint of Barcelona, the festival bids goodbye to the summer in charismatic style and welcomes in the autumn with precarious human towers, parades of giants and fire breathing dragons.
Human towers
One of its highlights is watching the Castellers or human towers in Plaça de Jaume, attracting thousands of viewers. Some of the towers reach up to eight ‘stories’ high.
Each tower is finished when a young child climbs to the very top. However with the strain of so many people on top of one another the possibility of the whole thing coming tumbling down is very real!
Giants
Another highlight of the Mercè Festival is the gegants and capgrossos (giants and big heads), a street parade of huge paper mache characters – often kings, queens and nobles – that dance to the beat of accompanying percussionists and interact with the public.
Correfoc
During the Correfoc, or ‘fire run’, another of the Festes de la Mercè’s most anticipated events, groups dressed as devils run up the street letting off bangers and hand held fireworks (an estimated 80,000 are set off during the festival).
Meanwhile huge dragons hurl sparks from their mouths.
Frightening? The Correfoc is certainly not for the faint hearted. However the good news is that there is a slightly tamer child’s version. Or alternatively you could just hold out for the spectacular fireworks display during the festival’s finale.
See more of our photos from Festes de la Mercè