A2Me

This 4-day weekend is La Mercè, the main festival of Barcelona since 1871, with lots of events all around the city, from exhibitions to all night concerts at various venues.

One of the highlight is Correfoc (fire running in Catalan), which is a parade of people dressed as, or riding the floats in the shape of dragon and devils. Each has a device that spitting torrents of fire sparkles, some of which spinning around to maximize the number of bystanding casualties. From time to time, they can just turn to direct the nozzle right into the crowd. If you like, you can join in walking and dancing along the float and bathing in a shower of sparkles.

Local people are normally prepared, with a long-sleeve tee, a protective eyewear, and a hat or a head scarf. Old/disposable and non-flammable clothes are highly recommended.

Today (22 Sept.) as usual, the parade started with a junior version for children, which was already scary enough. Every child was dressed as if they were bee keepers. One kid was in a parade wearing giant dragon head around his waist, spitting a load of sparkles that in other developed countries would prompt a social worker an urgent visit to the parents. The junior parade moved up Via Laietana to to the main stage in front of the beautiful Mercat de Santa Catarina where the drum performance took place. After, the main Correfoc started from there back down Via Laietana to the port. One could continue to the beach nearby to enjoy the fireworks show which started right after Correfoc.

It’s hard to find a safe public spot where I could enjoy the spectacle in full view, so I could not take a good picture nor video for you myself. But here is the video on youtube from last year’s event that should be able to give you good sense of what it’s like (and it’s not Baghdad). Enjoy