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2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009...
We had Gaudí Year in 2002, the "Year of Design" in 2003 and the ghastly Forum in 2004, the "Year of Gastronomy" in 2005, Picasso Year in 2006, and celebrated Science Year in 2007. We're not sure what 2008 was supposed to have been... Or 2009. The recession, perhaps...?

Picasso? Science?! I'm only coming to Barcelona for the football!

Football? I hate football! Take me straight to the concerts!

25 May-7 June
Jewish Film Festival of Barcelona
As well as the Asian Film Festival (see above), Barcelona also has a Jewish Film Festival, which reaches its 11th edition this year.

29 May-1 June
Comic Fair
The 27th 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...?!

June 6-7
Barcelona Extreme Sports Festival
If "skateboard, BMX, inline, FMX, urban jibbing and wakeboard" are your thing, don't miss the Barcelona Extreme Sports Festival, at the Parc del Fòrum.

•Languages: English, Spanish and Catalan

Motorcycling, 8 June
Spanish Grand Prix
The official Spanish Grand Prix site has full information on the Montmeló circuit (about 20 km outside Barcelona) and how to get there (train).

Details on our Barcelona sports page.

June 13-14
Bike Show'09
In 2006, Barcelona held its first ever "participative event" for the bike world (that's the kind that you have to pedal and get hot and sweaty, not the brrrom-brroMMMM variety) at the Palau Sant Jordi.

Following the success of the first two editions, we'll be back in 2009, with a professional bike industry fair; competitions of all kinds and various other events.

Until June 18
Barcelona Guitar Festival
The highlights of the 20th edition of Barcelona's "Festival de Guitarra" include Amaral (April 2); Jackson Browne (May 13), Gary Moore (May 21), Wilco (June 4) and Vicente Amigo (June 18).

Venues include the Palau de la Música, L'Auditori, Luz de Gas and Bikini, with over 30 concerts running through until June 18.

•Languages: English, Spanish and Catalan

16-18 June 2009
Internet Global Congress
For four days in May, 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

18-20 June 2009
Sonar Festival
The sixteenth 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…?!)

Hang on a sec: Grace Jones (who has just brought out her first new album for 20 years) will be there!

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

June 20-August 2
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.

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!

June 29 - July 31
Open air cinema
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for a lamentably short period, there's open-air cinema, the film starting at 9.00pm, under the walls on the fort on Montjuic (free bus service from the Plaza España). The 2009 programme includes Scorsese, Hitchcock, Almodóvar, the Coen brothers... Bring your picnic supper along beforehand and get some live jazz to go with it. A cool way to spend a hot summer night.

•We liked: The walk round the castle walls afterwards in the moonlight
•Not so hot: Some of the films on the programme... But hey, I'm going for the picnic
•Languages: English, Spanish, Catalan

Concerts
For what is on in the way of classical music, opera and the like, see what's on at the Palau de la Musica and the Liceu Opera House (two places well worth visiting for their architecture, even if you are not that keen on that sort of music). Tickets for these can be obtained from ServiCaixa, see below, which also has a rather frustrating to navigate calendar of events.

Classical music is also on at the Auditori, home to Barcelona's Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya (OBC). Tickets for this can be obtained from Telentrada (see below).

Apart from the concerts in the Guitar Festival (see above), coming up in Barcelona we have U2 (Camp Nou, June 30 and July 2); Metallica (Parc del Fòrum, July 11); and Madonna (Olympic Stadium, July 21); with Coldplay coming in September (Olympic Stadium, September 4).

No Summercase this year
It had become one of the highlights of the summer (last year we had Sex Pistols, Blondie, Primal Scream, The Verve, The Stranglers...) but there will be no Summercase Festival this year, due to the recession.

Now that's a worrying sign!

Barcelona concert tickets
ServiCaixa and Telentrada
Servicaixa is one of best sources of tickets for concerts and other events in Barcelona, being run by La Caixa, the city's major bank. Tickets can be bought online or at cashpoints throughout the city.

Telentrada is the online ticket service from rival bank Caixa de Catalunya.

Concert details are also to be found at concert promoters Doctor Music and concert tickets can also be obtained from TickTackTicket.

Football
Well, the football is now all over bar the gloating. Barça won the treble: the Spanish League, the Spanish Cup and the Champions and very much deserved it was (unless you happen to be a Chelsea or a Man. United fan, that is).

Tickets to see Barça can generally be obtained from the club office's on Av.Arístides Maillol outside the stadium or from ServiCaixa (see above) -- only you're going to have to wait a couple of weeks now before it all starts over.

A visit to the Barça museum includes a look inside the stadium itself, one the world's biggest.

Espanyol, Barcelona's "other" first division side also had an eventful season, spending 17 games in the relegation zone before hauling themselves up off the bottom with 7 wins in nine games to pull themselves to safety on the penultimate day of the season.

See also our Barcelona Sports page.

More on information on what's on in Barcelona
Guia del ocio
Barcelona's Time Out (well, no, you'll be disappointed if we say that), the Guia del ocio comes out on Thursdays and is to be found in the kiosks – or here on the Web.

Sections on cinema, theatre, restaurants, music, bars, art, hotels, gay Barcelona, tourism, "fiestas-erótica" (come again?) and a classifieds section.

•We liked: Its cinema listings and the site as a source of basic information (opening times etc).
•Not so hot: That beastly little pop-up!
•Languages: Largely Spanish, with the Tourism section (only) in English

LeCool.com
LeCool have a great little weekly e-mail bulletin of what's happening in Barcelona (with Madrid and Lisbon editions also available). Coming out every Thursday it features "events and leisure activities", with "exhibitions, movies, concerts & DJs as well as a careful selection of extraordinary bars, restaurants".

•We liked: Knowing what is on in Barcelona today...
•Not so hot: That horizontal scroll bar!
•Languages: Available in English and Spanish

What's on in Barcelona

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