Barcelona City - Local Travel information and City Guide » Entertainment » Festivals

People in Barcelona celebrate the vibrant and lively festivals throughout the year. There are traditional, religious festivals along with music festivals that are celebrated all year long. Check out the best festivals in Barcelona filled with fun, enthusiasm and make your holiday memorable.

Corpus Christi - L'ou com Balla

Corpus Christi - L'ou com Balla also known as the "Dancing Egg" festival, is celebrated since the 16th century. It is celebrated around the cathedral area in the centre of the city with parades of giants and 'Cabezudos,' i.e. big-headed carnival figures. During this festival, an empty eggshell is balanced above a stream of water. Those fountains are decorated with fragrant flowers in rich reds and pretty pinks.

Carnival

Carnival (Carnaval) in Spain started with Dirty Thursday. In Barcelona it is called Jueves Ladero - Greasy Thursday, or Dijous Gras in Catalan. It is the time of joy, fun and entertainment. There are carnival events and colourfull parades. It is a huge event filled with parties, parades, street festivals. During this period, the city gets filled with a vibrant atmosphere.

Festival Grec de Barcelona

The Festival Grec de Barcelona is an international theatre, dance, music and circus festival. Over the years, this event has become a major summer attraction in Barcelona. Every year, this event takes place from the end of June to the start of August at various venues across the city.

SONAR Festival

Sónar is an art, design, and electronic and experimental music festival. It was founded in Barcelona in 1994 by Ricard Robles, Enric Palau, and Sergi Caballero. Since the beginning, the festival has been divided into two parts: Sónar by Day and Sónar by Night. It's a festival of the experimental and the crowd-pleasing, the subtle and the unsubtle, scaled from quiet small-auditorium performances to seismic stadium dance music.

European Balloon Festival at Igualada

Every year, thousands of spectators come to the Catalonian town of Igualada, situated about 31 miles from Barcelona, to watch the European Balloon Festival. You can see the sky filled with fantastic colourful hot air balloons. It is the biggest balloon festival in Spain and one of the largest in Europe. During this period, the area gets converted into a festive place with stalls of various fun and entertaining activities.

La Merce Festival

La Merce Festival is a colourful and vibrant festival. It is generally held towards the end of September. It celebrates the city's patron saint "Mare de Deu de la Mercé", indicating the end of summer and the autumn months. The festival is a massive celebration for the people of Barcelona where many events pop up all over the city.