More Catalan culture – Les Festes de Gracia, Barcelona

Gracia is a neighbourhood in Barcelona. This one in particular is where you will find more students, young people and more bars. It is the modernist “barrio” (neighbourhood in English).

Les Festes de Gracia begin on 15^th August and go on until 21^st August – these are outdoors parties that include all sorts of activities for kids and for adults.

Normally you will be able to go from one street to the next to see different performances during the day, such as “Els Castellers de Barcelona” (The Castle Builders of Barcelona), (Picture No 1). You can also go to a little stage where you can see a theatre play going on. Other activities include Catalan people dancing “La Sardana” – the typical Catalan dance. (Picture No 2). 

At night time from about 20:00 hrs. is when most people come out to have dinner outdoors – most neighbours take their tables and chairs out in the street and dine together. It is very family orientated and a lot of fun. In some streets you can buy food and drinks and join the dinner. It is really cool – you will always find families cooking sardines and offering wine from “El Porró” (Picture No 3). This is a funny shape glass bottle that typical Catalans drink wine from.  I have not seen many English people able to drink properly from that object. It is very important to not pronounce the word wrongly, as without the accent on the last "o", means something totally different.

Each street has got a different theme and decorations around it, for example, last year there was one street themed with the song “The Yellow Submarine” from The Beatles and the whole street was a yellow submarine. There are more than 20 streets and they all have a different theme – they really are beautiful. There is a competition between all the streets and the winner street receives the top prize. (Picture No 4 of a street of Gracia decorated).

At night, there are several stages where life music bands play until about 2-3 am – all the neighbours are happy – they know there is no sleeping for 15 daysJ. You will normally see local bands playing with enthusiasm – fun never finishes as bars and other late night venues are open until the sunshine comes up again. (Picture No 6 of a band playing). Come to Gracia this year – you will love it!


 Picture No 1 - Els Castellers de Barcelona


Picture No 2 - People dancing La Sardana


Picture No 3 - Drinking wine with El Porró


Picture No 4 - Gracia street decorated


Picture No 5 - Band playing at Festes de Gracia