Fairs and Festivals

Strength, balance, courage and common sense, the four key concepts of human tower building, repeated like a mantra by its practitioners. For spectators, the most appropriate words might be thrills, nerves, suspense and joy. Without a doubt, to experience a human tower building event is to navigate a sea of sensations. So it’s no wonder that UNESCO inscribed this Catalan tradition par excellence on its list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

In this ancient country we're passionate about protecting and celebrating our festivals and traditions. We enjoy our great Mediterranean climate, sea, landscape and traditions with festive, joyful and infectious enthusiasm! Drop everything and join us as we usher in the main festivals of our towns and cities. In addition to paying homage to the local patron saint, you can enjoy plenty of other activities in these popular and inclusive festivals: street parades, gegants and capgrossos (papier mâché giant and "big head" figures), trabucaires (bandits carrying blunderbuss guns), music, dancing, diables (groups of people dressed as devils who set off fireworks) and spectacular human towers.

Very close to Barcelona you will find a great many examples of modernista works created between the 19th and 20th centuries. Urban palaces and holiday homes, churches and hospitals, warehouses and gardens, factories and cellars, all with the signature of the great architects of the movement in Catalonia: Antoni Gaudí, Lluís Domènech i Montaner, and Josep Puig i Cadafalch, among others. To commemorate this cultural trend, different towns and cities are organizing festivals and fairs to recover their aesthetic quality. Want to find out more about them?