The Port of Barcelona once again offers activities and proposals around Christmas. The port's Christmas offer, 'Nadal al Port', has incorporated novelties and expanded its dimension in its fifth edition, which will be held from December 5 to January 7. A light and music show on the cable car tower, a gastronomic market, and a virtual reality experience by the Super3 channel are some of this year's novelties, which maintains the ice rink premiered in the last edition.
Thus, activities will reach new spaces. They will extend from the Moll de la Fusta towards Plaça Pau Vila and other docks: the Barcelona dock, where the World Trade Center (WTC) is located, and the Dipòsit dock, in front of the Palau de Mar and along Borbó Avenue. There it will dialogue with one of the proposals that coincides this year with Christmas in the port environment, the immersive interactive exhibition of the Harry Potter universe. Other activities unrelated to the Port's organization will coexist with its Christmas agenda, such as the Circ Raluy, already a classic of these dates in Port Vell, which will offer shows until February 11. The arrival of the Three Wise Men by sea also sneaks into the Port's agenda. They will do so, as is traditional, aboard a Paleibot de Santa Eulalia illuminated for the occasion, and within the Christmas activities programmed by the Barcelona City Council.
The illumination of the Torre de Jaume I will be one of this year's new attractions. The initiative aims to highlight this metallic infrastructure. Unknown to many, it is located next to the WTC, and will be the setting for a light and music show. With daily passes at 7 p.m., it can be seen from the Moll de la Fusta, with songs linked to Barcelona and Christmas as a soundtrack. The Port's Christmas fair will open on December 5 at 6:30 p.m. precisely with this light and sound number, complemented by a performance by the Super3 (SX3) group Beta, gegants, castellers and the Big Band del Raval.
The new activities and spaces increase the linear meters of the fair from 500 meters to one and a half kilometers, with an area that gains 7,000 square metersSX3has also contributed to this edition by providing another of its novelties: it has designed aimmersive experience aimed at all audiences that incorporates virtual reality.This is a free group proposal to immerse oneself in the metaverse with all five senses. The experience has chosen theNadal at the Portfor its premiere, but it has been conceptualized as itinerant, with a tour of various points for 2024.
New gastronomic fair
The gastronomic products fair Sabors de Nadal will premiere in mid-December at the Moll del Dipòsit, next to the Museu d'Història de Catalunya. It will offer local gastronomic products, which will be another of the novelties of this edition. This year's edition will again include the Christmas fair at the Moll de la Fusta and a stage with performances by 60 entities and schools from neighborhoods adjacent to the port, as well as attractions such as a Ferris wheel and a carousel. These will be the only activities that will be paid, in addition to the 400 square meter ice rink that premiered in the last edition.
The new activities and spaces increase the linear meters of the fair from 500 meters to one and a half kilometers, with an area that gains 7,000 square meters compared to the 20,000 last year. With this growth in dimension and offer, the Port takes a "significant qualitative leap" with the aim of consolidating the environment as a reference space in the celebration of Christmas, according to the president of the Port de Barcelona, Lluís Salvadó.
He presented the proposals for Nadal al Port together with the head of the Strategic Unit for Children of 3CAT, Vanesa Hernàndez, and the director of Port Vell, David Pino. The director detailed that the Port will allocate close to one million euros to lighting and to reinforcing cleaning and security for this event, while the budget for each initiative depends on each of its promoters. They have ruled out predicting attendance figures or specifying those of previous editions, although they forecast a large influx to an event that wants to position itself as a reference for Christmas in Barcelona and beyond the city.