Barcelona Online | What's on in Barcelona

>> Ages ago | Just missed it | On this month | Coming up

•See also our "Ages ago" page (link above) for other annual events...

March 25, 2012
Barcelona Marathon
After a public outcry when Barcelona town hall refused permission (I mean, I ask you, what town hall wants to promote sport, for goodness sake?!), the Barcelona Marathon is back, with 13,062 starters in 2011, on a route taking in a number of Barcelona's big sights (Nou Camp, the Pedrera, the Sagrada Familia, the Torre Agbar...).

Pictured, right, Barcelona-Online editor Tom Walton leads the field mid-way through the 1986 edition... [Er... "appears to lead"? Ed.].

•We liked: The website's countdown to the big day
•Not so hot: Er... maybe I'll wait till tomorrow to start training.
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan and French.

End of March
Barcelona-Sitges vintage car rally
March sees the 54th edition of the Barcelona-Sitges vintage car rally. The winner depends on the car itself, not the time required to cover the 45km involved, with extra points going for dressing up appropriately.

To see the cars, go to Parc de la Ciutadella on the Saturday morning, or be in the Plaça St Jaume on the Sunday, before the rally starts at 11.00.

Well worth it!

April 23
Sant Jordi (St George's Day)
St George is the patron saint of Catalonia, and on the 23rd you will find people selling roses on literally every street corner, and bookstalls set up with roughly the same frequency.

As a gentleman you are supposed to give your lady a rose, the rose being said to have sprung from where the dragon's blood fell; as a lady you are supposed to give your knight-in-shining-armour a book. The book comes either (a) from the fact that April 23rd also happens to be the date of the deaths of both Shakespeare and Cervantes and (b) is thus World Book Day or (c) from the fact that it's a golden opportunity to flog some books.

It has become a little commercialised, but it's still a cute tradition and, to judge from the throngs on the Ramblas, a very popular one.

April 21—29
Barcelona Open Tennis
April brings the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell, aka the 60th "Trofeo Conde de Godó", and the foregone conclusion that Rafa Nadal is going to win it yet again.

•Languages: English, Spanish and Catalan
•We liked: Rafa Nadal's appearance fee for 2010: 400,000€
•Not so hot: The day tennis has a proper anti-doping commission in place

May 3-6
Comic Fair
The 30th edition of Barcelona's International Comic fair - comic, as in Spiderman, that is - takes place in the Fira de Barcelona this year. The site itself is a little disappointing, with little more of interest than the basic information.

•Languages: English, Spanish
•We liked: The actual fair
•Not so hot: A site design that makes next to no use of comic characters...?!

May 13
F1 Grand Prix Catalunya
Motor-racing comes to car-crazy Barcelona -- or just outside Barcelona, at any rate -- for the fourth race of the new season.

The motorcyle GP takes place at the same venue June 3.

May 30-June 3
Primavera Sound
The Primavera Sound is one of Barcelona's top annual music festivals.

The 2012 line-up includes, among many others, A$AP Rocky (sic), Archers Of Loaf, Björk, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Death Cab For Cutie, Napalm Death, Wilco, Wolves In The Throne Room, not all of whom, we confess, we'd actually ever heard of.

June 4—6
BDigital Global Congress
For four days in June, Barcelona becomes the "Internet world capital", the IGC site modestly claims. The event offers a wide range of papers and plenaries on Internet-related matters.

The site carries full information on the congress, its different plenaries and parallel sessions, as well as information on the "village" where you will be able to get your hands on some of all that technology.

•We liked: The vast, apparently all-inclusive range of its themes
•Not so hot: €300 a head for the four days unless you qualify as a student - and that was the 2004 edition!
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan

June 14—16
Sonar Festival
The 18th edition of Barcelona's Advanced Music and Multimedia Art SONAR festival takes place in June, with this year's big attraction being... Er, we're struggling with that one, I'm afraid. We guess that if you are really into this sort of stuff then, um, er… great! Nice talking to you… (Cripes, what was that guy on about…?!)

•We liked: ...er, the MNAC?
•Not so hot: Terrible site design... Just what the dickens is on?
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan

June 23
Sant Joan - Midsummer's Eve
Barcelona goes wild on St Joan, drinking cava, the local sparkling wine, consuming a rather boring coca de St Joan, a dry cake with candied fruit of various kinds on top, blasting off the annual budget of a small developing nation in fireworks and partying on the beach till dawn and the Guardia Urbana come along. Reliable sources -- aka a local freebie rag -- tell us that 28 tonnes of rubbish were collected this year the next morning.

The fireworks are something else. You remember Apocalypse Now? Walking the streets on the night of the 23rd is about like that. Wild!

More about Sant Joan on the official BCN site - what's on, how to make coca... Why, you can even build your own rocket!

July 1-31
Grec Festival
The Grec is one of Barcelona's major annual festivals, with events including music, theatre, dance and circus...

Tickets can be booked online (via Telentrada), but obtaining tickets and information is probably going to be much easier from the ticket and information office at the top of the Portal de l'Àngel, in the south-east corner of the Plaza Catalunya.

15-21 August
Festa Major de Gràcia
Gràcia, once separated from Barcelona by green fields, is now one of its more bohemian districts, much loved by those into ethnic restaurants and spending the day lounging on café terraces as well as being home to Barcelona's punks and squatters. It is also home to one of the more vibrant street festivals, with 600 events (dance, theatre, music...) over 9 nights.

The neatly designed site has the basic information about what's on...

•We like: The annual competition to decorate the streets
•Too hot: Barcelona in August
•Languages: Catalan only

September 23
La Mercé
Barcelona's "festa major", La Mercé, is named after its patron saint and includes music and dance as well as some spectacular traditions such as the castellers (human castles, pictured, right) and the correfoc (literally the firerun), at which dragons belch fire over the packed crowds and demons spray everyone with sparks.

The Mercé also includes a very popular 10km fun run across the city.

•We liked: Being sprayed with sparks... No, really: it was kind of, you know, kinky!
•Not so hot: Don't expect the official site to be up and running long in advance
•Languages: English (very limited), Spanish and Catalan

October 4-14
Sitges Film Festival
A half-hour by train down the coast from Barcelona, this year Sitges celebrates the 45th edition of its popular film festival (which it modestly describes as "the number one fantasy film festival in the world").

•We liked: The scary trailers section
•Not so hot: What? No family pics?!
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan

October 25-28
ArtFutura
The 21st edition of ArtFutura, a digital art and new media festival, includes a wide range of workshops, conferences, performances, special presentations and audio-visuals.

October—December
Barcelona's International Jazz Festival
Supposedly one of the best in Europe (but then that does tend to get added to just about everything that is on in Barcelona), with this year's program (the 43rd edition of the Festival) still to be announced.

Concert venues include the Auditori, the magnificent Palau de la Música, and two of the city's best club venues, Jamboree and Luz de Gas.

See also Barcelona Jazz Festival Blog

November, date to be confirmed
Saló Nautico
Celebrating its 51st edition in 2012, Barcelona's International Boat Show is one of the biggest and most interesting of the city's many trade fairs. See our review.

December 21—22
Encuentro Práctico ELE
The "Encuentro práctico para profesores de ELE", now in its 21st year, is a major annual congress for teachers of Spanish as a foreign language, now also with editions in Rome (Italy), Krakow (Poland) and Würzburg (Germany).

December
Christmas in Barcelona
We have a few odd Christmas traditions here in Barcelona, as this page shows...

If you are visiting Barcelona and going to be decorating the house for Christmas - particularly if you have a crib (Nativity scene), don't miss the Feria de Santa Lucia, in the square in front of the Cathedral until December 22.

As for those odd traditions, note the traditional Catalan figure of the "caganer", the (ahem...) "shitter" (as illustrated, right).

Not until 2014

Barcelona World Race
The Barcelona World Race is a two-handed, non-stop round the world yacht race. Nine teams competed in the first event (2008) -- 25,000 miles in three months in (er, let me check...) an "IMOCA Open 60 monohull".

The last edition started December 31, 2010, and was won after 93 days at sea by the French boat Virbac Paprec 3.

•See also our "Ages ago" page for other annual events...

What's on in Barcelona

>> Ages ago | Just missed it | On this month | Coming up