With chestnuts and panellets still practically untasted, Barcelona is already beginning to prepare for Christmas. This year it faces it with more illuminated spaces, more hours of light, and new proposals, ranging from large-scale figures to hotel facades and emblematic buildings adorned for the occasion.
The large figures will land in all districts of the city. Specifically, there will be 22 light structures with Christmas motifs, such as a large reindeer that will be one of the protagonists of Christmas strolls and photos. The figures will extend much further beyond the center, to squares such as Trinitat Vella and the one created by the Ciutat Meridiana metro exit.
"There are spaces in the city that also asked to be illuminated," defended the Councilor for Commerce, Restaurants, and Markets, Raquel Gil, who maintained that these light structures will contribute to revitalizing these spaces. In total, the city will have 110 kilometers of spaces with lights, six more than last year.
This year's lighting involves a budget of 3.3 million euros, 13% more than last yearAnother of this year's novelties is that the facades of hotels and singular buildings in the city will be lit up, like the Vallcarca viaduct,Casa Golferichs, the Masia de Torre Llobeta and the Torre de les Aigües del Besòs. In addition, routes will be launched through emblematic shops in the Gòtic and Raval neighborhoods, which will pass through establishments such as the Marsella bar, Casa Almirall and the Cafè de l'Òpera.
And there will not only be more illuminated spaces, but also more hours of light. And that is because the City Council is committed to turning on the lights two more hours a day: until one in the morning from Sunday to Thursday, and until two on Fridays, Saturdays and holiday eves.
According to the City Council, the lights had never been turned on so late, and doing so will imply a budgetary increase that "does not reach 15,000 euros", since practically all lights are LED, according to Gil. The lights will be on from November 28, when they will be illuminated with an event yet to be detailed, until Three Kings' Day, every day from 5:30 in the afternoon.
Despite these novelties, this year the design of the lights that have been installed since 2021 in Plaça Catalunya, Gran Via and Aragó will be maintained. The change will come in 2025, with the premiere of new designs. In fact, it has already been decided who will be in charge of the new lighting, through a competition by the Associació de Disseny Industrial-FAD. The Artec studio, by Mauricio Ginés, will illuminate Plaça Catalunya; the interior designer A.P.O will be in charge of Gran Via, and the SMLXL+MI-MI agency will design the lighting for Aragó street.
For this Christmas season, the City Council has invested 3.3 million euros in the lighting of the city's streets and in this year's novelties, which represents a 13% increase compared to 2023. The increase of 400,000 euros responds mainly to the production, installation, maintenance and removal of the lights promoted by the City Council, and to the fact of bringing lighting to more points of the city. All this in a Christmas that, as Gil has summarized, will have "more neighborhoods, more kilometers and more light."