barcelona`s - Ajuntament de Barcelona

barcelona’s
F E ST I VA L O F F E ST I VA L S
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A huge
popular event
FESTIVAL
OF FESTIVALS
1 week long
ARTISTIC
FESTIVE
TRADITIONAL
MUSIC
PARTICIPATION
FREE
POPULAR
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Every year, around September 24th, Barcelona celebrates
La Mercè, patron saint of the city, and its Festa Major.
A festival of festivals, it draws together between
1.500.000 and 2.000.000 people during its week-long run.
Festivities, cultural and artistic, take place throughout the
city in differing public spaces.
La Mercè transforms Barcelona into a grand stage bursting with fantasy and imagination. creativity is the driving force behind it, traditions its roots, and music an
outstanding voice. over 600 activities and shows go on during the week with more
than 2000 artists and professionals taking part.
The wide artistic endeavour embodies the city’s values. a key element is the involvement of a large number of local groups and associations, with spon- sorship and
collaboration from private companies. all events are free.
La Mercè aims to be a reflection of the city itself - enterprising, creative and inventive. Barcelona is a city moving forward with a search for innovation and evolution. the
Festival manages to maintain its qual- ity while at the same time it is searching for
and pre- senting new trends.
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Creativity
The driving force behind
the festival
The program
presents a careful
selection of:
dance
circus
street theatre
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Large scale
events After Dark
fire
light
images
technology
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La Mercè is
committed to
performers of
quality, local
and international,
incorporating
different styles
and disciplines
for outdoor public
spaces
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From
11 am
to 4 am
600
200
performances
COMPANIES
The artists invited
to perform at La Mercè are
a sample of the city itself
(Barcelona being an international meeting point with an
18% immigrant population).
They are chosen from
the current best shows and
performances.
In 2009 alone, artists came
from all over the world:
Russia, Morocco, the United
States of America, China,
Brazil, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Australia, Sweden,
Algeria, Canada...
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La Mercè has an artistic program, with street theatre as the outstanding feature.
Dance, circus, bands, fringe, and touring shows make up the bulk of the events;
in the evenings, large format installations that combine light and new technology
are integrated with fire traditions and pyrotechnic displays.
All in all, it is a proposal of public nature that not only wants to get the magic of performance closer to peo- ple’s differing interests, but also to try more risky, daring
and challenging artistic experiences.
This major artistic event has consolidated Barcelo- na’s position over the last years
as the perfect meet- ing point for programmers and artists, and in this way has
become one of the best stages on which to see some of the most brilliant artistic
expression of the moment, right at the beginning of the season.
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TRADITION
A journey from the past to the future
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From the past to the future. Traditions have always been
and continue to be one of the pillars of the Festa Major
200
YEARS
OF HISTORY
La Mercè is always in growth
and development-absorbing new
things from the world around,
and allowing them to continue to
shape its own identity.
In the programme
of traditional
culture always
included are:
«TOC D’INICI »
CAVALCADE
CASTELLERS
SARDANES
DANCES
CORREFOC
BASTONERS
GRALLERS
TRABUCAIRES...
600.000 PEOPLE ON THE STREET
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The Festa Major -a celebration which goes back more than
two-hundred years. La Mercè wants to capture the character
of the city itself, a Barcelona which keeps renewing itself
and opening up to the world.
Over the last few years, one of the most important processes has been to rework the
traditions with modern elements - the result being a folklore that is much more accessible to today’s citizens of Barce- lona.
The most traditional events reflect catalonia’s pop- ular culture as a whole. the toc
d’inici (the start of the festival), the parade of the giants, the castellers (human castles), the sardanes and other dances, the correfoc (fire-run) and the street parades
with bas- toners (stick dancers), grallers (a kind of oboe) and trabucaires (carrying
blunderbusses), bring around 600,000 people onto the city streets, making our traditional programme one of the largest public events in the whole of europe.
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MUSIC
MUSICA AND BAM
Music plays
a major role
It is divided into two
programs, all outdoor
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CONCERTS FOR EVERYONE
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POPULAR AND MAJORITY
+ THAN
60
CONCERTS
Festival
[BAM]
Music festival
independent
with the best sample of independent
music from the Catalan, Spanish and
international scene.
Barcelona has always been a city with a wide and
diverse musical culture, as a result of which, music plays a major
role during la Mercè. the musical events are divided into, on the one
hand, a programme of popular concerts for the general audience, and
on the other, the independent music festival BaM
(Barcelona acció Musical).
BaM, brings together more than 70 musical events on ten different stages, and has a
massive response from an audience of almost 500,000 people year after year. at the
same time, la Mercè presents a series of popular concerts for the general audience,
with na- tionally and internationally known pop and rock artists. Among that, a program recently started stands out, with a stage dedicated to jazz music, combining
international stars with up and coming artists.
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DIVERSITY
The cultural pulse of today
Guest city
2015 BUENOS
AIRES
2007 MEDELLÍN
2008 QUITO
2009 ISTANBUL
2010 DAKAR
2011 SANT- PETERSBURG
2012 MONTREAL
2013 VIENNA
2014 STOCKHOLM
Barcelona is an open city, a meeting point, a melting pot of cultures, origins and beliefs, that have left a mark in the history of our
land. La Mercè encloses the Guest City program aimed to bringing
Barcelona’s people closer to the different cultures with which
they coexist. Through this parallel program, a city from somewhere
else in the world is invited to present its culture and its top
artistic proposals.
The cities of Medellin (Colombia), Quito (Ecuador), Istanbul (Turkey), Dakar (Senegal),
Saint Petersburg (Russia), Montreal (Quebec-Canada), Vienna (Austria) and Stockholm
(Sweden) have already shared the magic and quality of their top avant-garde artists
in music, theatre, dance and film, as well as their most representative traditional
expressions with the people of Barcelona. The stages of Barcelona become a great
showcase for the guest city to present its culture to Catalan society.
Buenos Aires will be the gest city in Mercè 2015.
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PARTICIPATION
The people’s festival
Barcelona’s
Festa Major
is the festival
of the people
all who are
in our city
and wish
to celebrate
and enjoy it
In the last years those who have
taken part in the different
programmed events
add up to almost
2.000.000
PEOPLE
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FREE
For all audiences
Free of
charge!
“everything free”
is the basis of the
policy for public
culture, with
which the Institute
of Culture of
Barcelona
(ICUB) works
Bringing culture closer to the people
and including more daring experiences
that help us move forward
INVOLVEMENT
Everyone takes part in La Mercè
The whole of Barcelona is ready to take part in its Festa Major
More than 200 groups and associations led by the Barcelona
City Council’s Institute of Culture are part of the festival’s organizing team
Almost 30 major companies are sponsors or collaborators...
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Organizing La Mercè is one of the most
motivating challenges in our calendar,
due to its complexity and notoriety.
That’s why, among other reasons,
Barcelona’s City Council, organizer
of the festival through its Institute of
Culture (ICUB), works all year round so
that Barcelona has the best possible
Festa Major
That’s the secret of its success
That’s the secret of its success
ORGANITZA:
INSTITUT DE CULTURA DE BARCELONA
Departament de Festes i Tradicions
Cap del Departament: Marta Almirall Elizalde
CONTACTE:
INSTITUT DE CULTURA DE BARCELONA
Palau de la Virreina
La Rambla, 99
08002 Barcelona
Telèfon: + 34 933161160
e-mail: festesicub@bcn.cat
www.bcn.cat/merce