The festival Terrats en Cultura has lowered the curtain on its 14th edition with very satisfactory figures: more than 1,000 people attended performances on rooftops across Barcelona and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat to enjoy open-air shows. The official closing took place last Friday, July 24, and marked the end of a festival that started on June 12.
In total, Terrats en Cultura presented 13 productions on 7 different rooftops spread between Barcelona and L'Hospitalet de Llobregat. In addition, it has remained faithful to one of its most fun traditions: the secrecy of the location. The public did not know the exact location of the rooftop until 48 hours before the performance, a "secret" that adds a sense of playfulness and adventure to each event.
Recovering the city from the rooftops
To understand the success of Terrats en Cultura, its success goes beyond attendance figures. The cycle is an initiative of Coincidències, a non-profit cultural association that has been working in the performing arts since 2013, the democratization of access to culture, and the creation of new audiences. The entity's aim has always been to recover urban spaces for socialization (both public and private) through small-scale artistic projects.
From this line of thought, the idea of reclaiming the rooftops was born. These spaces, so linked to Mediterranean architecture and neighborhood life, are often currently disused, closed, or threatened by new patterns of urban development. Temporarily converting them into cultural stages is a way to bring them back to life, democratize their use, and open them to the public.
This commitment to urban space has also had an international reach. Coincidències is one of the founding members of the European Creative Rooftop Network (ECRN), a European network that brings together social, cultural, and environmental projects that use rooftops as a driving force to transform the urban environment into a greener, more human, and creative space.
Strong attendance, and the commitment to current talent
The public's response to the 14th edition has once again validated the festival's proposal. The show S’obre el teló and the musical evenings by Argentine singer Carmen Aciar and rumba band Acaracan sold out; and the rest of the program recorded an average attendance rate of 85%. These data show that there is interest in an intimate format, where the barriers between the stage and the audience completely disappear.
Beyond the numbers, this edition has served to reaffirm the festival's commitment to small-format multidisciplinary performances and to authors who address the great themes of the contemporary world. In the theatrical section, the rooftops have hosted highly reflective pieces such as L’esquerda by Jorge-Yamam Serrano, the celebration of memory in JOLGORIO by Alicia Reyero and Lali Álvarez, the satirical A fuego by Pablo Macho Otero, or La Culpa no es de la estaca..., a text by Enric Nolla about Venezuelan exile interpreted by Dailyn Valdivieso.
Music has also played a major role with performances such as the experimental folk of Thelee or Daniel Lumbreras, while the humor of Oye Sherman and Esther López (accompanied by a wine tasting from DO Catalunya) added a lighter note. The closing of Terrats en Cultura closed with Mar Garcia and Javi Soler with the dance and theater piece Un paso adelante, which precisely reflected on precariousness and frustration in the world of performing arts.
Next stop: autumn 2026
Although the summer program has already said goodbye to the rooftops, the festival the festival is not over just yet. On October 10, Terrats en Cultura will offer a special epilogue with the reading of Seven Jewish Children. A Play for Gaza, by British playwright Caryl Churchill. It is a a brief, powerful and politically engaged play that reflects on violence, the conflict in the Middle East and the way adults transmit (or silence) barbarity in front of children.
The Coincidències team, however, is already looking ahead to its 15th edition. The cycle celebrating 15 years of Terrats en Cultura will start in April 2027, coinciding once again with the Spring Festivals of l'Hospitalet de Llobregat, and most of the programme will take place in June and July.
Terrats en Cultura has once again brought theatre, dance, comedy and live music to Barcelona's rooftops. This year's edition proved once again why it has become one of the city's most distinctive summer traditions.
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