Barcelona is warming up to dress up for Christmas. The city has programmed multiple concerts, shows, activities, workshops, and installations to celebrate the holidays, totaling hundreds of proposals that will extend throughout all its districts. "The city will shine brighter than ever, with a Christmas full of lights, commerce, and people on the streets," defended the mayor, Jaume Collboni.
The lights hung over the city streets for days will not have to wait much longer to be lit. An urban dance, rap, and visual effects show will be in charge of kicking off the Christmas season. Passeig de Gràcia will once again host the show to light up the city's lights, which will feature five stages and 28 dancers.
With the show Solvern, designed for the occasion, the avenue repeats as the one in charge of lighting the city's lights for the second consecutive year, a fact that has been criticized by the commercial hubs grouped in Barcelona Comerç, who have advocated for maintaining the itinerancy that had characterized the event until now.
Specifically, the show will take place between Ronda Sant Pere and Gran Via starting at 6 p.m., with a production by the internationally renowned company Aktionstheater Pan.Optikum that will bring together various generations of Catalan and German artists, as explained by Collboni alongside the head of Festivals and Traditions of the Institut de Cultura de Barcelona (Icub), Anna Lleó, and artistic directors Sergi Ots and Jordi Duran.
The show will mark the beginning of a program that will once again feature Plaza Catalunya as a prominent location. As is traditional, it will become a large stage where 25 shows by 17 performing arts companies and eight music groups will perform. In the square, the Barcelona Christmas Festival will run from December 20 to 30, with an interdisciplinary program that will total more than 300 performances.
The square will cater to diverse audiences throughout the day: mornings have been designed for family audiences, with shows that will close daily with an Ambauka concert, while circus and dance will take over the square in the afternoons. Music will be the protagonist of the program starting at 7 p.m., and the night will give way to the show Natal. The production, by Animal Religion, will close the day in the evenings, reclaiming a playful and childlike perspective through circus and music.
In addition, the square will also host the Responsible Consumption and Social and Solidarity Economy Fair from December 19 to 29, with some 60 companies and activities. The Plaza Catalunya fair will join the various fairs that the city will host during the Christmas season, such as the traditional Fira de Santa Llúcia, Fira de Nadal de la Sagrada Família, and the Fira de Reis, which will fill Gran Via with toys and artisan gifts until January 6.
The nearby Plaza Sant Jaume will be another highlight of the festivities. With a joint decoration for the first time between the City Council and the Generalitat, the square will be adorned with a 15-meter tree and a large 20-point star that will replace the usual nativity scene. However, those who wish to contemplate the nativity figures will not have to go far, as the Associació de Pessebristes will install one in the Pati de Carruatges of the consistory. There will also be a nativity scene in the Generalitat, which can be visited on specific days, and in the Monestir de Pedralbes.
New Year's Eve and the Three Kings
New Year's Eve will be another highlight of the program. The city will bid farewell to 2024 with a music, drone, and pyrotechnics show by the Groupe F company. Again, the Font Màgica de Montjuïc is left out of the show: last year it was not lit due to drought, and this year it remains inactive because it is under repair. As councilor Raquel Gil has detailed, the work to get it back up and running will last until the end of summer.
The arrival of the New Year will accelerate the preparations of the Three Kings for their arrival in the city. Their toy factory will reopen in Sant Andreu, while the Royal Camp will be set up in Nou Barris from January 2 to 5, after King Balthazar's family passes through the Casa de l'Aigua de Trinitat Nova from December 28 to 30. As usual, the Kings will arrive in the city by sailboat, and will begin the parade passing in front of a Portal de la Pau with a renovated facade and following the same route as last year.
The neighborhoods as a stage
With the will to continue decentralizing the festivities and bringing them to all districts, Barcelona has programmed 80 concerts in markets and commercial areas of the city as part of the Sons de Nadal festival. The city will also host the Cantagran concert, starring elderly people at L'Auditori, and the Christmas concert of the Orfeó Català, which this year premieres a new location in Plaza de la Catedral.
The activities will reach locations such as Park Güell, which will illuminate its Hypostyle Hall; Tibidabo, and Port Olímpic, which will offer Christmas and nautical activities for the first time after its renovation. In addition, Port Vell will once again host the Nadal al Port event, which grows in space and offerings, and the Festival de la Infància will once again be held in Montjuïc, with 60 activities across 20,000 square meters of the fairgrounds.
This year, Barcelona will have 110 kilometers of illuminated streets and 24 large light figures.In addition, the markets will also host children's and family activities and workshops, and a hundred proposals have been programmed to revitalize the neighborhoods and promote their commerce.The Christmas festival will also reach the districts with the group Sound de Secà, which will perform in Nou Barris, Sant Andreu and Sants-Montjuïc to reclaim public space as a place of coexistence through dance, theater, percussion and voice.
Christmas will spread through the city's neighborhoods also through lights. This year, Barcelona will have 110 kilometers of illuminated streets, six more than last year, and the lights will reach neighborhoods for the first time this year where the commercial fabric does not have the capacity to install them, such as Ciutat Meridiana.
Its neighboring district of Torre Baró will repeat this year the launch of community lighting designed and created by the residents. On this occasion, it is inspired by the film for which the neighborhood is the setting, El 47, which has become the most watched Catalan film of the last 40 years.
In addition, 24 large light figures with Christmas motifs will be installed in the various districts, in a year in which 14 singular buildings will also be illuminated, as Collboni recalled. The lights, moreover, will be on for more hours, starting at 5:30 p.m. and totaling more than 322 hours. They will do so with a budget of 3.3 million euros for a Christmas season that aims to make the city shine "more than ever."