La Merce!!

Alright. so Barcelona had it's biggest festival, La Merce, September 23-26th. It celebrates one of the patron saints of Barcelona. The celebration lasts from Thursday evening to Sunday evening. This celebration brings many people to the city of Barcelona. Not only does it include Catalan traditional aspects, but there is also BAM, a free music festival. Belle and Sebastian and Ok Go both played the festival plus many more. On Thursday night, my friends and I went near the beach to watch the fireworks. There was also a little carnival near the beach with a bunch of little vendors selling clothes and jewelry. On Thursday night, we only stayed near the beach, but most of the festivities happened in Placa Jaume in the Barri Gotic neighborhood of Barcelona. It's the area where the old walled in Roman city of Barcino was. On Friday, we went to the Barri Gotic and watched a parade of giants. I dont know the Catalan name for it, but they were kind of creepy only because they were giant people. They were either dressed as royalty or as Catalan peasants. After we saw the parade, we wander around and found a concert, The Morning Benders. I've never heard them but they were pretty good and fun to dance to.

This festival is like nothing in Chicago or the States at all. There was soemthing going on in every single part of the city. no exaggeration. On Saturday afternoon, we wandered Barri Gotic. There was a lot of street music over there. I saw two guys playing three hang drums. Hang drums are something I've learned about since I've gotten here. A hang drum is a precussion instrument that is made into an elliptical shape and makes a beautiful noise. They are also ridiculously impossible to purchase. In order to obtain a hang drum, on needs to write a letter to the producer of the hang drums in Switzerland and then you get a response and hoopefully a hang drum. You need written permission to own one basically. They are custom made and incredibly expensive. These guys had four. Kind of intense.  

Alright. Now wandering back towards the direction of my apartment we ran into a parade, of course. This parade consisted of groups of drummers from some of the regions in Catalunya. They were amazing and definitely nothing like a high school marching band. They wear fun cozy pants, bang on their drums, and dance along to the beats. So cool. I saw them at the other parade too. They might be one of my favorite things.

This drumming parade was only the beginning to the Fire Run. Now the Fire Run is something that could never ever happen in the States. um. so the streets were full of Barcelona city workers and tons of hoses. That should be a sign. People dress up as beasts and dragons and escape out of the gates of hell a d chase you, spraying fireworks everywhere. Now you can chose to participate or not. Participating includes running under and being attached by fireworks. I am a wuss. Oddly enough, I opted out of getting burned. But don't worry every single child around me was bundled and covered getting dragged by their parent/guardian under fire. European children are clearly more badass than I am?



This event ended my La Merce experiences. Ssadly I missed probably one of the most intense events, human towers. People stand on one another to form human towers. I didn't go to it but I'm assuming it was very stressful.

For reference: None of this pictures are mine. And if you want to see the fire run or the human towers, I would youtube: La Merce-Correfoc for the fire run and Castellers La Merce 2010 for the human towers. I would have posted links but my computer was too slow to watch any of the videos. Sorry! Check it out though.