Barcelona continues to promote the great transformation that must serve to position its Christmas lighting as a symbol of the city's identity. After adding new illuminated streets in recent years, Plaza Catalunya, Gran Via and Aragó street will premiere this Christmas a new design style conceived by the Barcelona studio of Antoni Arola.
The date to turn on the lights will be Wednesday, November 24, at 6 in the afternoon, with theater, circus and music in Plaza Catalunya. The City Council has chosen this setting to kick off the festivities as a show of support for the shops in the city center, the most affected by the pandemic. "This Christmas has to be the one of resumption," defends the Councilor for Commerce, Montserrat Ballarín. The lights can be enjoyed until Tuesday, January 7. For New Year's Eve and Three Kings' Night, they will remain on until two in the morning.
The new lights that will decorate these three spaces in the city center flee from Christian iconography and celebrate the winter solstice, Arola points out, resorting to LED strips with warm light that can then be reused. In the case of those in Plaza Catalunya, its centrality will be vindicated with a large crown that radiates light and beats to the rhythm of the city. Arola wanted to redraw its lines and link it with the surrounding buildings. Aragó street, between Bailèn and Aribau, will use perspective to draw stars on the lanes, while Gran Via, between Bailèn and Muntaner, will fill with elegant lamps, inviting people to stroll as if they were at home.
Over the next few years, the renovation that will be seen this Christmas in Plaza Catalunya, Gran Via, and Aragó street will extend to other streets in the center with the aim of creating an integrated narrative and asserting itself as a design city. This transformation has also resulted in lighting new streets. This year, Ronda Sant Pere, between Passeig Sant Joan and Urquinaona, will be lit for the first time, and the section with lights on Balmes street, from Diagonal to Ronda Universitat, will be extended. Lighting that has been introduced in recent years, such as those on Via Laietana, Plaza Urquinaona, and Avenida Paral·lel, and those that decorate municipal markets, will also be consolidated. In total, more than 100 kilometers located on public roads will be lit in Barcelona starting next week.
"We are decisively moving towards this new model of Christmas lighting," explains Ballarín. To do so, the administration has increased the investment allocated to Christmas lighting compared to last year, going from 1.62 million euros to 2.15 million, a 32.46% increase. In 2020, this figure had already grown by 65%. It will also maintain the 75% subsidy for commercial axes and associations that want to light their streets and squares, with a budget of 882,516 euros.