The arrival of autumn this year will be celebrated in style during the four days of Barcelona's festa major: La Mercè. A festival that is not only much loved by all of us who live here, but also much desired for what it implies as a celebration of life, now more than ever. This year, furthermore, marks 150 years since the City Council decided to take the reins of the festivity and turn it into a cultural event for the citizens, which has not stopped growing and branching out into festivals with their own names such as BAM and Acció Cultura Viva, Mercè Música or Mercè Arts de Carrer (MAC).
The festival kicks off on the 23rd at 6:30 p.m. with the opening speech, which in this very special edition will be given by Custodia Moreno Rivero, activist, feminist and neighborhood leader, who, among other things, fought to improve living conditions in the shantytowns of Carmelo and Can Baró, an improvement that materialized in the 90s. And another woman's name is behind the design of the La Mercè poster, that of Malika Favre, a Parisian based in the city who has illustrated for media such as The New Yorker or the Spanish edition of Vogue. Favre has conceived an exquisite poster, full of recognizable details of the city and our daily lives, imagining a queen and empowered Mercè who looks at us defiantly, and who changes color according to the character of the event she announces. A true success.
As last year the pandemic situation did not allow for much celebration, this 2021 has seen the recovery of the initiative ---which was supposed to be for 2020--- for Havana to be the guest city during these festivities. Its own artists will represent the city, especially in the field of music and street arts. And another characteristic of this edition, also introduced in previous seasons with great success, is the decentralization of the festival so that it can reach more points of the city and thus extend it to neighborhoods and areas that otherwise would barely participate in the festival. This is the case of the new stages that will be installed in the Parc del Turó de la Peira, in Nou Barris, or the Vall d'Hebron football field, in Horta-Guinardó.
150 years have passed since the City Council decided to take the reins of the festivity and turn it into a cultural event for the citizensThis year's La Mercè wants to place popular culture at the center of the festival, as a small tribute, so that it can recover that essential contact with the public. For this reason, it has been planned thata stretch of one of Barcelona's most emblematic streets, such as Paseo de Gracia, will host the events dedicated to traditional and popular culture, symbols of the identity of the festival. There, on the 24th, we will be able to enjoy the festive procession where giants, castellers, falcons, and traditional parades and correfocs will parade. However, the exhibition will be divided into time slots, and although morning activities will be freely accessible with capacity control, tickets must be reserved for afternoon activities.
In parallel, we will find an exhibition at La Casa dels Entremesos dedicated to the original posters of the festivities.
An agenda with more than 500 activities awaits us, with the participation of nearly 200 popular culture entities from the city, 110 artistic companies, and 114 musical groups. And as in any good festival, it will be necessary to organize oneself to choose what to see because, in addition to the aforementioned capacity control, prior reservation of tickets is required for many of the planned activities, which in this edition will also be grouped into blocks by time slots and spaces instead of by shows.
And if there's one thing that can't be missed as a closing act, it's the Piromusical, which this year will again be launched from four different points distributed throughout the city, a successful formula not only because it avoids crowds but also because it allows it to be seen from the terraces and balconies of Barcelona residents, although to follow it with music it will be necessary to have a radio or television nearby. Among the musical repertoire chosen for this year, highlights will include themes honoring Havana, this Mercè's guest city; the celebration of the festival's 150th anniversary; the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth; and the centenary in 2020 of the first concert at the Palau de la Música Catalana by the Orchestra promoted by Pau Casals that bears his name.
As a summary, we leave you a small list of what we will find by zones. Happy Mercè to all the people who live and enjoy the city of Barcelona!
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CIUTAT VELLA
- Parc de la Ciutadella: Visual arts exhibition Das Archiv des Weltensammlers will once again be the space that will host popular culture traditions in their most current version and the Mercè Arts de Carrer shows.
- Plaça de Sant Jaume: the party starts here with the so-called Toc d'Inici.
- Plaça Reial, Moll de la fusta and Plaça Joan Coromines: the three spaces will host concerts by the city's music schools, and BAM and Música Mercè concerts.
EIXAMPLE
- Antiga Fàbrica Estrella Damm: BAM concerts in a unique setting.
- Parc de l'Estació del Nord: will be the space dedicated to dance within the framework of MAC (Mercè Arts de Carrer).
- Passeig de Gràcia: a section of one of the city's emblematic streets will host the celebration of 150 years of Mercè and its popular culture.
- Parc de Joan Miró: will feature programming for the little ones at home.
SANTS-MONTJUÏC
- Castell de Montjuïc: circus-themed shows will once again be located in the castle and its surroundings.
- Estadi Olímpic de Montjuïc: here we can enjoy concerts organized by collaborating radio stations.
- Jardí dels Drets Humans and Palauet Albéniz: we will find more activities from the MAC festival.
- Teatre Grec: the concerts proposed for this venue belong to the Mercè Música block.
HORTA-GUINARDÓ
- Jardins del doctor Pla i Armengol and Camp de Futbol de la Vall d'Hebron: are two new locations that will host, on the one hand, the most relaxed musical proposals, and on the other, the great Mercè concerts.
NOU BARRIS
- Turó de la Peira: another of the new places for the festival where we will find the most solidarity proposals from Pallassos Sense Fronteres.
- Plaça Major de Nou Barris: the symphonic orchestras of Catalonia will meet here.
- La Casa de l'Aigua: around the MAC, we will enjoy shows dedicated to humor.
SANT ANDREU
- Parc de la Trinitat: the ideal place for urban culture proposals.
- Recinte Fabra i Coats: within the framework of the Acció Cultura Viva festival, here we will see the most alternative proposals.
SANT MARTÍ
- Plataforma Marina Fòrum: another of the Mercè Música stages.
- Utopia 126: this block of warehouses will host the artistic proposals of the guest city.
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