What's on in Barcelona
Missed it | This month | Coming
No messing: Football | Concerts
Pride Barcelona
June 20-30
The "most important LGBT pride festival in the Mediterranean", apparently (though here in Barcelona we don't tend to be modest about any event we put on!)
Sant Joan: Midsummer's Eve
June 23
Barcelona goes wild on St Joan, drinking cava, the local sparkling wine, consuming a frankly 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.
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.
Open air cinema
- Info: English, Spanish, Catalan
June 30—Augus 7
On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for a lamentably short period, there's open-air cinema, proceeded by a live music (21.00), the film starting at 22.00, under the walls on the fort on Montjuic (free bus service from the Plaza España).
Bring your picnic supper along beforehand and enjoy 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
Yo Picasso: Self Portraits
Until September 1
This year celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Picasso Museum has a temporary exhibition of 90 self portraits dating from 1895 to 1972.
Open air, live jazz
Until September 7
In the truly unique setting of the rooftop of Gaudí's La Pedrera. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays only.
Concerts
Coming up we have Def Leppard + Whitesnake + Europe (Pavelló Olimpic de Badalona, June 24); The Smashing Pumpkins (Razzmatazz, June 27); Mark Knopfler (Poble Espanyol, July 25); Eros Ramazzotti (Palau Sant Jordi, September 19); Melendi (Palau Sant Jordi, October 18).
There's also the Festival de Pedralbes (June 20-July 8), in the lovely gardens of the Palau Reial, with people like Josep Carreras, Julio Iglesias, Lana del Rey...
And celebrating its sixth anniversary we have the Cruïlla Barcelona festival (July 5-6), with big names including Billy Bragg, Rufus Wainwright, Snoop Dogg, and Suede.
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)
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).
Barcelona concert tickets
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 Ticketmaster.
Tickets for many concerts can also be purchased at FNAC.
Football
Given that they've won the Champions three times in the last eight seasons, there's perhaps some justification for the claim that Barça [website] are the best team in the world (though for non-football fans it's hard to understand quite what they all get so over-excited about).
Pre-season games in Spain are still to be confirmed, but so far we have:
- Joan Gamper Trophy Barça vs Santos (?), August 2
Tickets to see Barça can be obtained online, from the club office's on Av.Arístides Maillol outside the stadium or from ServiCaixa (see above), with the new season due to start at the end of August.
A visit to the Barça museum includes a look inside the stadium itself, one the world's biggest.
Espanyol [website], Barcelona's "other" first division side play in a new stadium out in Cornellà (to get there, take the FGC train line from Plaza Espanya and get off at either Cornellà-Riera or Almeda).
For unbiased reports on the Spanish League in English, we recommend the coverage in The Guardian, where Sid Lowe has a great column.
For utterly one-eyed reporting, see our Newspapers page.
See also our Barcelona Sports page.
What's on in Barcelona
Missed it | This month | Coming