Merce

An incredible piro musical.....

La Merce is over......Can't believe it!!! I'm still trying to figure if I will do 2 posts for this or one but let's see. You might be seeing mostly pics but what an amazing festival/holiday that was!!!! Never seen anything like it. For 3 days and 4 nights we partied, walked around, saw concerts, experienced amazing (and crazy traditions), got caught in huge crowds, got almost smashed in crowds, made some extra leg muscles from standing and walking and dancing, and enjoyed ourselves tremendously!!!!!

A concert stage

It was an unbelievable experience! Some old traditions are kept, some new ones added. So many tourists (as if the city doesn't have enough....) flocked for the festival...There were so many venues (by this I mean stages set up on squares and plazas :), artists, cultural events of all kinds and they started in the mornings and continued until the very early hours of night. 

      

The giants that represent every neighborhood and town  

   

Then there were the "castelleres" -- the human towers which are an amazing tradition!!! Imagine a plaza packed with so many people  that you can't even breathe and then these people come dressed in different colors to represent the different neighborhoods and compete against each other.  The towers start building up in the middle of the crowd and you can see how freaking hard it is! By the time the little boy or girl goes all the way to the top you are barely breathing....The tower starts wobbling and the people on the bottom start shaking. You don't want them to go down but you can see (and imagine) the weight of the whole thing. One by one they start going down from the top and then the crowd explodes clapping! It didn't crash and they did it!!! And then they start again!

A different type of tower

Lovely huge flowers in the park

One of the big and nice parks in the city had all kinds of events, including this quite interesting band :). Two people bike and move the whole wheel and the three musicians sit back and play. The music was quite good too. 

Also a very interesting show in the air which was a pleasure to watch!

The night of "correfoc" or running with fire. Can you tell that I'm wearing glasses, long sleeve, and a scarf trying to cover my face?! There is a reason...Even though I didn't do the exact running with fire (due to the fact that you have to be completely covered -- head to toe; sandals do not count) I was still there and all the sparks flying around did not make me feel very comfortable. It is a crazy tradition though! The "gates of hell" are lit and open up to let all kinds of dragons and devils go through. Then these people that are completely clad light up fireworks on tall sticks (are imagining fireworks that can't shoot up in the sky instead ate attached to a stick thus spread sparkles everywhere????) and start running through the crowd following the dragons! If you don't want to run with them and keep your clothes, hair, skin untouched better move to the back...Oh and did I mention that all this is happening on one of the big streets in BCN!?!

And the gates of hell open up....

The last night was a wonderful and amazing ending to this festival -- piro musical at Pl. Espanya. A combination of life songs, the fountain and fireworks! And with a good company what more do you need?!?! We got there earlier and sat on the street (closed for traffic of course). Had brought some wine, beer, bread, cheese and chips and voila -- we could wait very patiently for the show to begin :). Once it started I didn't want it to end....So beautiful!!!!

The circle of trust

Who's going to be follower #21?! :)