We have been here for almost two months now (yikes!) and are loving it. My next post will be about our daily life, neighborhood, restaurants, walks, etc. This post is specifically about an event that greeted us a few weeks after we arrived, a festival called La Merce. It is Barcelona's annual festival for their city and has been an official city holiday since 1871. It is wild. It lasts for three days, Friday is a holiday, and there are hundreds of events that happen all over the city, in four or five main locations, over-lapping, some religious, some musical, some artistic, and some just crazy. You think I'm exaggerating, just wait until you see pictures and I explain the fire run.
The festival was an incredible representation of the city of Barcelona and is based around three elements: music, water, and fire. It is also strongly cultural and historical. It is located in the older parts of the city, the gothic neighborhood, around the cathedral, and by the harbor. So, it also provides an opportunity to spend time in these areas and get to know them better.
Oddmund and I decided not to use the metro during the weekend, because there were concerts, parades, events going on all around the city, all the time, and we didn't want to miss the possibility of stumbling upon some event, which happened a number of times. That being said, we probably walked at least thirty miles during the whole weekend. And probably ate about 10 bocadillos (aluminum foil wrapped baguette sandwiches which are lunch for at least 75% of the Spanish population). We started each day with a backpack full of bocadillos and water and came home ten hours later, amazed and exhausted.
We felt very fortunate to be able to observe this festival, as did, I imagine, the more than a million other people who came to Barcelona for La Merce 2010.
So, let's get to some pictures!
We left our house Friday afternoon and strolled down to the city center to get some sense of what exactly was going on. Immediately upon arriving at Plaza Catalunya, we met thousands of people, packed streets, loud music, and a clear festival atmosphere.
Our first "event" was stumbling upon this live presentation in the middle of the plaza. There was a woman in a gymnastic ring/sphere contraption who also performed on the ribbon. She was wooed by three suitors who took turns showing their skill on a high bar, often at the same time, as shown in the picture. They were incredible gymansts and the crowds loved their act.
As I mentioned, the event took place in some of the older and more classic neighborhoods. This Arc de Triomph leads into a Park that was the location of events for children throughout the festival.
Where's Waldo? No, just kidding, but I am in the picture, wearing the bright orange dress!
People in the park, sitting in the grass drinking beer and eating bocadillos. There were strages throughout the park for mimes, dance performances, a small carnival for children, face painting, etc. Also, at night, they changed all the lights in the park to different colors in different areas and it felt like a mystical, dreamy, park.
The small carnival for kids.
More of the park with people lounging, playing soccer, enjoying the beautiful weather.
This was an example of stumbling on something wonderful. We were walking home and heard loud drumming and music. Weaving our way through old, narrow, gothic streets, and literally following our ears, we found this lively, fun, percussion band who had attracted a serious crowd.
Walking through Plaza Real.
The next day we walked to the Plaza Espana, which is at the beginning of the Park Montjuic. This huge hill and park was home to the Olympics when they were in Barcelona, has a castle on top, large gardens, and this Catalonian Art museum. Not to mention some wonderful views. It was also the location of the closing ceremony/concert/fireworks show.
Walking up to the museum.
The view from the steps of the museum out to the rest of the city. This view looks north/northeast.
There was another long walk and another detour (again, hearing music and following our ears) where we found the area of the festival dedicated to the Senegalese population of Barcelona. There were dance lessons, concerts, puppet shows, and a large arts and crafts market.
After spending some time there, we climbed to the top of the hill to find the castle. This castle was built in 1640 and has been used for a number of things, including to house prisoners during the time of Franco. Between 1936 and 1938, 173 people were executed here by firing squad. Now, it holds a military museum and is the only place in the city where you can see a statue of Franco.
A great view from the castle, showing the industrial wharf as well as the coast and, even though it's small and far away, the heart of the city and it's main harbor.
The industrial wharf in Barcelona, which is huge. We watched two big cargo ships being loaded, and cruise ship traffic in and out of the harbor. From here you can also see the airport. It is a good place to sit and try and understand how huge a city and bustling metropolis Barcelona is, besides just the tourist destination we all know it for.
A view from the other side of the castle, to the north, showing the mountains and hills the surround the nothern part of the city.
After coming down from the mountain we walked to Plaza Saint Jaume, which was the main concert and event location. This event was a large public dance square with live music, for people of all ages and skill levels to perform a typical Catalonian dance, named the Sardana. From what we observed, it involves standing in a circle, holding hands, and then hopping and turning doing some intricate footwork to the beat of the music. We observed both a very serious, professional group who had routines and a director, and a very open, public group with people of all ages and a constantly expanding circle as people decided to join. It was very welcoming and all the locals seemed to know the dance.
Although it is not well demonstrated in this picture, there must have been at least ten to fifteen different circles of strangers dancing in this small plaza. We oberserves got pushed out as the circles expanded and took up more space. It was very interesting. But we had to leave anyway, we had a more important event to get to.... (This is when you start getting excited to hear about the fire ru)
Our next event, and one of the most popular (and dangerous and crazy) events of the festival is the fire run. It is one of the newer events, started in the early 1900's, and is very popular with young, energetic, and adventurous men. Our festival guides recommended very particular clothing (cover all skin, eyes, wear a hat) and suggested that we stand far back and just observe. The crowds walking to get to this event were unbelievable and reminded me of Franklin Street on Halloween or after UNC won the National Championship. But, we finally found a spot we were comfortable with and waited. Here are some nervous people:
I literally had no idea what to expect. As it got closer to the event, they turned off all the streetlights running along the main street and people starting to cheer/scream in fear. I was wearing a summer dress, but did the best I could:
The event was located at a big intersection in which they had built a huge arch with a dragon head in the middle. There were people dressed in long red robes like the devil and carrying huge stakes and pitchforks. It was a daunting site.
We were in a sea of people, including a lot of kids wearing protective goggles, bandanas, gloves, and not an inch of skin showing. They looked so excited and brave. The event started with loud explosions and firecrackers coming from the centralized dragon. Half the kids immediately started crying and their parents had to take them away from the event. All that work and dressing up for nothing! This is how far we were from the dragon arch, and we assumed we would be safe. But the number of people with goggles/hoods/and gloves around us still made me nervous.
The show continued around the dragon with various fireworks, explosions, etc.
Here was one of the braver kids.
More fire!
And then they started coming down the street. The stakes and pitchforks, it turns out, are used to hold huge fireworks that rain down sparks and fire onto the crowds. The devil characters carry these down the streets in a parade and shoot fire and sparks onto the entire crowd. Some of the fireworks spin around like a sprinkler of death. This is when I started to back up.
And they kept getting closer, this shows the firewoeks and the one in the middle which is spinning.
There was also a huge dragon that they rolled down the street and loaded with six of these fireworks and turned and sprayed incredible amounts of sparks and fire onto the observers.
Oddmund bravely took this picture underneath the shower of sparks while I was hiding behind my scarf and purse. The people in the parade purposefully walk to the sides of the street to make sure that everyone in the crowd has their opportunity to be thrilled.
Crazy sparkler mayhem.
There were also drums and music, and each time a firework ran out of sparks it made a huge popping noise and one last big explosion. They each must have had hundreds because they just kept reloading as they paraded down the street.
This video really captures the event. You first can hear the explosions when the fireworks run out. Then you see workers reloading the rolling dragon and lighting it. Once lit, you can see the group of courageous boys/men who are there to play in the fire and get as close as possible.
This parade lasted for over an hour and a half. They marched all the way to a plaza and stairs in front of an old church. The incredible thing is that they didn't stop then. They continued to dance, party, and spray these fire torches for at least another hour. We could hear the drums, screams, fire, and explosions throughout downtown until at least 11pm.
After the fire run we watched the evening's fireworks show by the beach (as if we hadn't seen enough already) and started to walk home. We decided to walk through the park where we had been the day before, where the children's activities are, to see the lights there at night. It was beautiful.
On our way out of the park we saw a projector doing a very cute little cartoon video with lasers about the festival. We were standing with a crowd of people watching this innocent video when smoke makers turned on all around us and filled the air with a thick smoke. Then, an amazing laser show started, but there was no projector screen. Because the smoke was so thick the lasers projected into the air. The lasers felt like ceilings, and walls, and everyone was reaching out to touch them because it was so surreal. Here you can see the green roof
And the lasers made planes and spun around while loud, fast music was playing.
There were waves and all sorts of different shapes. And this is not in some new club, this is outside in the middle of a park.
I can't really capture this show with pictures and words. You just have to see this video:
The next day, Sunday, had one of the most famous and classic events, the castelleros. These are groups of people from cities around Spain who compete to build the tallest human towers. They use about 50 huge men on the ground layer and push each other together to form a strong, solid base. About ten people stand on top of them to form the next layer, all with arms on each other's shoulders. From there, and with careful planning, each layer climbs on top and stands on the previous layers' shoulders, links arms, and stabilizes themselves to be stood on. Smaller and smaller people climb up the backs of the layers beneath them and add on to the tower. Young children, 4 and 5 year olds, make the top layers of the towers, wearing helmets, and after extending their arm to attain maximum height, quickly climb down and the tower disassembles.
First, the competing teams entered the plaza, in a tower of six people just standing on each other's shoulders and walking in.
Next, the first team went. This is the second layer of men.
Starting to get high up there! This is five levels and you can see the kids with helmets on climbing past the third layer.
Completed tower! Now get down before you hurt yourselves...
The next group started with a much larger base. Those ten or twenty men you see on the bottom are all standing on men who are standing on the grund.
One kid on top the make the highest possible tower. So so so scary.
We started to leave as the third group built their tower, to avoide the massive crowds who would leave after this tower. When looking back we realized it was the tallest of all! And the top four layers were only two people, instead of the more stable four person arrangement we had seen before. They were so high, and the kids climbed to the top, ten layers of people high, the tower started to wobble, and the little kids from the top four layers all fell. It was terrifying. But, they were safe because there is such a wide base of the first layer that they fall onto other people.
Finally, Sunday night was the closing ceremony, located in the beautiful Plaza de Espana and the Catalunyan Art Museum.
There must have been a million people there, spread out throughout the park, the plaza, and the large open avenues surrounding this area.
There was a fireworks show that lasted for about forty minutes, accompanied by an interesting, happy, music compilation that everyone, myself included, loved. They played old, classic songs, with some of the original version and then transitioned into some interesting other version of the same song. The versions could be: Spanish, reggae, instrumental, classical, country, acapella, and many more. It was beautiful. They did fifteen minutes of all the Beatles classics in that style, and then the same with five to ten minutes of Queen songs. Everyone was dancing, singing along, smiling, and cheering for the fireworks. It really summarized the whole festival. I have never been in such overwhelmingly large crowds and felt so safe and happy. Everyone was really just enjoying themselves and the art/culture/music of the festival. I was very impressed with the city for putting on such a beautiful weekend!
