Festes de la Merce

Barcelona has had a long trend of holding up traditional festivals all around the year. Each is unique and novel in its own way. Festes de la Merce, Barcelona is one such traditional festival that takes place on the September 24th celebrating the city’s patron saint, the Virgin de la Merce. There are many events starting from the 22nd up to the 24th of the month, which is declared a public holiday.

One can witness various processions that run through the streets during the Festes de la Merce, Barcelona, This parade includes the parade of the giants. The ‘giants’ are wooden figures that are operated by people. There are various sports events, musical performances and fabulous firework displays followed by heavy drinking. There is a local champagne called the Cava that is consumed heavily.

Festes de la Merce, Barcelona is the main annual festival of the city. There are various events that take starting from the 22nd of September. There are various acts that take place around this time including classical theater plays, folklore shows and even contemporary events like rock concerts and techno raves.

The highlight of Festes de la Merce, Barcelona is the competition where groups of people climb atop each other and form a sort of human tower. It is a competition to see which group succeeds to form the highest tower. The best place to find and see this competition is in the Placa de Sant Jaume. Participants in traditional costumes climb up on top of each other until they cannot hold any more. This human tower often reaches the height of around eight levels. These participants called the’castellers’. The construction of these human towers began in South of the Catalonia province. The human castles are called ‘castells’ that have to be achieved by the teams who are known as ‘collas’.