{"id":147,"date":"2013-09-15T20:02:41","date_gmt":"2013-09-15T19:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rhworldimagery.wordpress.com\/?p=147"},"modified":"2015-04-02T15:48:55","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T15:48:55","slug":"festes-de-la-merce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/","title":{"rendered":"Festes de la Merce"},"content":{"rendered":"

A photographic tour of Barcelona’s most extravagant street festival<\/h2>\n

Barcelona\u2019s spectacular La Merc\u00e8 Festival – the city\u2019s largest street party \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

Human towers<\/p>\n

\"Minyons<\/a>
\u00a9Lucas Vallecillos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of its highlights is watching the Castellers or human towers in Pla\u00e7a de Jaume, attracting thousands of viewers. Some of the towers reach up to eight\u00a0‘stories’ high.<\/p>\n

\"Castellers<\/a>
\u00a9Lucas Vallecillos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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!<\/p>\n

\"Castellers,<\/a>
\u00a9Juergen Richter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Giants<\/p>\n

Another highlight of the Merc\u00e8 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.<\/p>\n

\"giants<\/a>
\u00a9Juergen Richter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"`Cabezudo'<\/a>
\u00a9Lucas Vallecillos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Correfoc<\/p>\n

During the Correfoc, or ‘fire run’, another of the Festes de la Merc\u00e8’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).<\/p>\n

\"Fireworks<\/a>
\u00a9Ingolf Pompe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Correfoc,<\/a>
\u00a9Juergen Richter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Meanwhile huge dragons hurl sparks from their mouths.<\/p>\n

\"Correfoc,<\/a>
\u00a9Juergen Richter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"Fireworks<\/a>
\u00a9Xavier Fores<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

See more of our photos from Festes de la Merc\u00e8<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A photographic tour of Barcelona’s most extravagant street festival Barcelona\u2019s spectacular La Merc\u00e8 Festival – the city\u2019s largest street party \u2013 kicks off at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[97,209,210,272,372,373,388,511,586,784,805,1017,1076],"class_list":["post-147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-barcelona","tag-castell","tag-castellers","tag-correfoc","tag-festes-de-la-merce","tag-festival","tag-fireworks","tag-human-towers","tag-la-merce","tag-patron-saint","tag-photography","tag-street-party","tag-travel"],"yoast_head":"\nFestes de la Merce - robertharding<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Festes de la Merce - robertharding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A photographic tour of Barcelona’s most extravagant street festival Barcelona\u2019s spectacular La Merc\u00e8 Festival – the city\u2019s largest street party \u2013 kicks off at the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"robertharding\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-09-15T19:02:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-04-02T15:48:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/817-320018.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"313\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"480\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Harding\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Robert Harding\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Robert Harding\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/86a0ae1b852e075547a13ff5453836b1\"},\"headline\":\"Festes de la Merce\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-15T19:02:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-02T15:48:55+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":367,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/817-320018.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Barcelona\",\"Castell\",\"Castellers\",\"Correfoc\",\"Festes de la Merce\",\"Festival\",\"Fireworks\",\"human towers\",\"La Merc\u00e8\",\"Patron saint\",\"photography\",\"Street party\",\"travel\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/\",\"name\":\"Festes de la Merce - robertharding\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/817-320018.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-09-15T19:02:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-02T15:48:55+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/817-320018.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/817-320018.jpg\",\"width\":313,\"height\":480},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/09\\\/15\\\/festes-de-la-merce\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Festes de la Merce\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"robertharding\",\"description\":\"Sharing adventures in travel and nature photography\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Robert Harding Picture Library\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/logo-green.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2015\\\/03\\\/logo-green.png\",\"width\":800,\"height\":134,\"caption\":\"Robert Harding Picture Library\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/86a0ae1b852e075547a13ff5453836b1\",\"name\":\"Robert Harding\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0f787f3c38e8193e3f6af1dac2667d87c6fc148526abd8ef24e41c3aaa4e3617?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0f787f3c38e8193e3f6af1dac2667d87c6fc148526abd8ef24e41c3aaa4e3617?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/0f787f3c38e8193e3f6af1dac2667d87c6fc148526abd8ef24e41c3aaa4e3617?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Robert Harding\"},\"description\":\"After founding the company in 1974, Robert Harding has grown robertharding.com into the world's largest online resource of travel, culture, nature and environment photography & video and has over 1k professional photographers and videographers contributing to the agency.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.robertharding.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/robert-harding\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Festes de la Merce - robertharding","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Festes de la Merce - robertharding","og_description":"A photographic tour of Barcelona’s most extravagant street festival Barcelona\u2019s spectacular La Merc\u00e8 Festival – the city\u2019s largest street party \u2013 kicks off at the […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/","og_site_name":"robertharding","article_published_time":"2013-09-15T19:02:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-04-02T15:48:55+00:00","og_image":[{"width":313,"height":480,"url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/817-320018.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Robert Harding","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Robert Harding","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/"},"author":{"name":"Robert Harding","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/86a0ae1b852e075547a13ff5453836b1"},"headline":"Festes de la Merce","datePublished":"2013-09-15T19:02:41+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-02T15:48:55+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/"},"wordCount":367,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/817-320018.jpg","keywords":["Barcelona","Castell","Castellers","Correfoc","Festes de la Merce","Festival","Fireworks","human towers","La Merc\u00e8","Patron saint","photography","Street party","travel"],"articleSection":["Culture"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/","url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/","name":"Festes de la Merce - robertharding","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/817-320018.jpg","datePublished":"2013-09-15T19:02:41+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-02T15:48:55+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/817-320018.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/817-320018.jpg","width":313,"height":480},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/2013\/09\/15\/festes-de-la-merce\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Festes de la Merce"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/","name":"robertharding","description":"Sharing adventures in travel and nature photography","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Robert Harding Picture Library","url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/logo-green.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/logo-green.png","width":800,"height":134,"caption":"Robert Harding Picture Library"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/86a0ae1b852e075547a13ff5453836b1","name":"Robert Harding","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f787f3c38e8193e3f6af1dac2667d87c6fc148526abd8ef24e41c3aaa4e3617?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f787f3c38e8193e3f6af1dac2667d87c6fc148526abd8ef24e41c3aaa4e3617?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/0f787f3c38e8193e3f6af1dac2667d87c6fc148526abd8ef24e41c3aaa4e3617?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Robert Harding"},"description":"After founding the company in 1974, Robert Harding has grown robertharding.com into the world's largest online resource of travel, culture, nature and environment photography & video and has over 1k professional photographers and videographers contributing to the agency.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.robertharding.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/author\/robert-harding\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5859,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147\/revisions\/5859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.robertharding.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}