Fire Up For the Biggest Street Party in Barcelona (21-24 Sept)
Although it could be said that it’s always like summer in Spain, the season comes to a close in Barcelona with a street party that is worth waiting all year for. The La Mercé Festival runs for four days at the end of September and attracts thousands of visitors from all over Spain and beyond for days filled with fireworks, food, parades and even human pyramids!
Kicking off this year on the 21st September and running until the 24th, the La Mercé Festival welcomes in the slightly less scorching months of autumn and also serves to honor the Patron Saint of Barcelona, Mare de Deu de la Mercé. It has taken place every year since 1902 but every year is more spectacular than the rest, so you never quite know what you might see.
However there are always some staples of the La Mercé Festival that you can expect to see each year, starting with the Correfoc, or Fire Run. This colorful part of the festival is an enormous parade that winds around the streets of Barcelona, and locals dressed as devils run up and down the streets with bangers and handheld fireworks.
They will be accompanied by enormous dragon statues that ‘breathe fire’ onto the crowds, as showers of sparkles pour from their mouths, so be sure to wear protective clothing as they can be quite powerful! There is also a tamer children’s version of this parade too, which takes place before the main event.
Towers of Fun You can also expect to see Castellers, or Human Towers, for which thousands of people will pack the Plaça de Sant Jaume to witness Barcelona’s acrobats flip, spin and somersault their way into crazy formations.
The Gigantes are also an enormously important part of La Mercé – in fact, they’re just enormous! The Giants are paraded around Barcelona during the daytime, accompanied by live music, but beware – they’re known to chase people if and when they feel like it.
As well as these three thrilling aspects of the festival, you can also expect drinking, dancing and good food from morning until night, throughout the city of Barcelona. It’s certainly an event not to be missed, so why not check out low-cost airlines like Jet2.com cheap flights to Spain starting at just £29 one way including taxes.
Kicking off this year on the 21st September and running until the 24th, the La Mercé Festival welcomes in the slightly less scorching months of autumn and also serves to honor the Patron Saint of Barcelona, Mare de Deu de la Mercé. It has taken place every year since 1902 but every year is more spectacular than the rest, so you never quite know what you might see.
However there are always some staples of the La Mercé Festival that you can expect to see each year, starting with the Correfoc, or Fire Run. This colorful part of the festival is an enormous parade that winds around the streets of Barcelona, and locals dressed as devils run up and down the streets with bangers and handheld fireworks.
They will be accompanied by enormous dragon statues that ‘breathe fire’ onto the crowds, as showers of sparkles pour from their mouths, so be sure to wear protective clothing as they can be quite powerful! There is also a tamer children’s version of this parade too, which takes place before the main event.
Towers of Fun You can also expect to see Castellers, or Human Towers, for which thousands of people will pack the Plaça de Sant Jaume to witness Barcelona’s acrobats flip, spin and somersault their way into crazy formations.
The Gigantes are also an enormously important part of La Mercé – in fact, they’re just enormous! The Giants are paraded around Barcelona during the daytime, accompanied by live music, but beware – they’re known to chase people if and when they feel like it.
As well as these three thrilling aspects of the festival, you can also expect drinking, dancing and good food from morning until night, throughout the city of Barcelona. It’s certainly an event not to be missed, so why not check out low-cost airlines like Jet2.com cheap flights to Spain starting at just £29 one way including taxes.
