Spain events, vacations and travel blog

The Barcelona city festival La Merce is celebrated each year, being September 24 a local festivity. The hundreds of planned activities start today, September 21.

La Merce is the patron saint of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, after having combated a grasshoppers (locust) plague in the 17th century.
Between the late 19th and early 20th century, the festival became very popular with many cultural celebrations.

Today´s opening ceremony (7.45 pm) at Plaza Sant Jaime (plaça de Sant Jaume in Catalan), headquarter of the city hall and Catalan government, will show the well known giant figures (gegants) dancing to the traditional Catalan instruments, such as the tabal, tarota and the flabiol, made of wood.
Monday morning, September 24th at 11 am, the giants will dance again on the same place and throughout the gothic quarter.

The world famous human towers (castellers), originally coming from southern Catalonia, will take your breath away, and should not be missed, on 2 days at Plaza Sant Jaime: Sunday at noon with the Castellers de Vilafranca and the Minyons de Terrassa. Monday, 12.30 pm will be reserved for the Castellers de Barcelona and colles de Vila de Gracia, Sants, Sagrada Familia, Poble Sec and colla jove de Barcelona.

One of the highlights during La Merce festivities to enjoy and also to be somewhat careful, is the Correfoc (fire run), starting at 8.30 pm on Sunday at Via Laietana street. During the event you can see along many streets dragons, beasts and devils fire spitting, what can be somewhat a bit dangerous if you get too close, not wearing a cotton shirt with long sleeves, long trowsers, a hat and a neckerchief, apart from comfortable footwear. Also bear in mind that there will be thousands of people on the streets.

The façade of Gaudi´s Sagrada Familia (the holy church) will be the scenery of a new spectacle in seven acts. This show will be only from Friday to Sunday night, starting the first one at 9 pm and offered by a Canadian company, specialised in multimedia events.
Another façade light and tecnological show can be seen every night at the town hall (Plaça Sant Jaume), which includes images from well known places and monuments in Barcelona. The first show starts at 9.15 pm.

These are only a few of the events to take place during the La Merce city festivities in Barcelona, Catalona, Spain, between September 21 and 24, 2012.

The Mobile World Congress, once more held this year, from today until Thursday at the Montjuic area in Barcelona, Spain, will host 1.300 companies displaying everthing around the mobile future.

Industry seminars will come up with ideas, initiatives and innovative solutions. A high class seminar and an award ceremony will also form part of the international congress.

50.000 professional visitors from all around the world, with 9.000 mobile network operator representatives are expected to visit the 3GSM Mobile World Congress in Barcelona during these four days.

The upcoming 2010-2011 season at the famous Liceu Theatre on the not less famous Ramblas boulevard, offers a huge variety of classic and contemporary works.

You can choose between sixteen operas, four concerts, three recitals, three dance performances and several children’s plays. Among the highlights are Bizet’s Carmen, Verdi´s Falstaff, Iphigenie auf Tauris as well as Ariane et Barbe-Bleue by Paul Dukas.

A great event in Barcelona will be the appearance of Placido Domingo of Tamerlano by Händel.

To celebrate their 30 years on stage, the famous Tricicle will perform with Garrick at the Teatre Poliorama in Ciutat Vella, Barcelona, until December 13.

For the first time and until February 14, the Picasso Museum in Barcelona, Spain, shows 19 erotic Japanese prints which belonged to the private collection of the unique Spanish artist, forming part of an exhibition called Secret Images and which counts more than hundred works of International artists.

It might not be well known, but Barcelona in Spain has a historic Jewish Quarter (Call), located in the Gothic Quarter, right in the city center.

Together with Toledo and Girona, Barcelona has the biggest concentration of Jews in Spain. The Jewish community is steadily growing after their expulsion in Catalunya in the year 1391, and 1492 in the rest of Spain.

There are 2 synagogues, of which one is excavated and rehabilitated at the corner of Sant Domenec and Marlet, only 200 m from Plaza Sant Jaume, square where the City Hall and also Catalan Government are located. The Main Synagogue is the oldest in Europe and its main facade faces southeast towards Jerusalem.

Hebrew inscriptions can be found in shops, restaurants and cafes as well as along L’Arc de Sant Ramon, Calle del Bisbe, Banys Nous or Sant Domenec del Call streets.

This coming weekend, October 3 and 4, this year´s last Red Bull World Championship air race will be held in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Barcelona will see and welcome the winner of this year´s World Championship competition, to be held in front of the sea line with over 1 million people expected to watch the air race Grand Finale. Currently Paul Bonhomme from Britain is leading the championship with 55 points, 4 points ahead of Hannes Arch, Austria, last years´s champion. A total of 15 pilots are taking part of the air race. 

Tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, will take place the 2 Qualifying Sessions after side acts and a pre-show. The Race starts at 2.30 pm on Sunday. The top 12 pilots will fly again at 3.30 pm and the final 8 at 4 pm. The big final 4 will start at 4.45 pm and will decide the World Champion. The award ceremony in Barcelona is scheduled for 5.15 pm and half an hour later results will be given.

The High Flyer Lounge and Race Club can be found at Passeig Maritim del Bogatell 91-99, Barcelona, Spain.
Public viewing along Avinguda Litoral, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain and nearby beaches.

The Barcelona festivities take place between today and Sunday with over 600 activities and venues throughout the city. It is one of the biggest events in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

La Merce, patron of Barcelona, has its Saint today and with a warm and nice weather celebrating this holiday and celebration, many events can be followed, from Castellers (human castles / human tower building groups) in front of the city council to an activity packed day in the city park Ciutadella.

In the park are all sorts of games for children like table games and throwing a boomerang. Also several days with the yearly Asian Festival, where one can enjoy Asian food, Jazz groups, Indian and Chinese live music, including Cui Jian, the well known Chinese rock star.

Each night fireworks can be seen along the Barcelona beach, participating several international companies.

Many museums participate with free entrance during the festivities.

This year´s city guest is Istanbul (Turkey). At the maritim Museum of Barcelona you can see Turkish shadow theatre, discover cinema, a Turkish bazaar and National art.

Turkish music can be listened to at Plaza Sant Jaume.

The annual season at the Teatre Tantarantana, located in the district of Ciutat Vella in the centre of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, includes mainly shows and performances on dance topics.

Shows can be seen such as Dust, a contemporary dance by the Nun Art dance company. As to physical theatre, the Sevilla Centro de Arte Escenico presents: I cook and he does the washing up. An open-air show will include Clogs go for good habits, performed by the Canary Islands dance company Nomada Danza - Teatro.

During the new season, starting in September, the Romeu Theatre, located in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, will present the production The time of the Doves, including the North American actress Jessica Lange, winner of two Oscars.

This play formed part of the Catalan Days Festival during May at the Baryshnikov Arts Center in New York.

During the season, families will be able to enjoy Sleeping Beauty with music by Tchaikovsky. Another show is Paganini, with a mix of classical music and humour.

Also forming part of this year´s season will be the Comediants, the play Blackbird, written by David Harrowe and the experimental production Hamlet´s Circus by Toni Martin. 

Barcelona is celebrating until June 28 the Pride Barcelona 09. This event is the Mediterranean’s most important Gay Pride with more than 25 associations, 70 businesses and the LGBT community.

It is a free and nonprofit making celebration which shows the best the city has to offer. Until Sunday you can enjoy the city of Barcelona and all the diversity that Catalonia offers at an event which has prepared all sorts of activities, including film, culture, family, entertainment, sport and debates. The event will end with a parade full of colour and a great free party. The setting for this parade will be Barcelona’s Sepulveda street and the Maria Cristina Avenue at the foot of the Palau Nacional Museum. This is the venue for the institution´s  exhibition and the great Pride Barcelona closing party.

Extracted from the Press Release of pridebarcelona.org.

This Sunday, the Australian rock group AC/DC will be back in Barcelona for the second time in just over 2 months.

The ‘Black Ice World Tour’ concert will be this time at the Olympic Stadium, after the first one was in the Sant Jordi Hall. The European tour will end on June 30 in Glasgow after about 50 concerts.

Tickets are already sold out to see this band which is in business for more than 30 years.  

After a great Broadway success, this Argentinian show created by Andrew Kay and David Vigo back in 2005, has finally come to Barcelona.

Until June 14 you can see at the Victoria Theatre (Teatre Victoria), located between Plaza Espanya and the Rambla, a combination of pure tango dance and music, performed by ten professional dancers, four musicians and a singer.

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