La Mercé - Or, why Barcelonians are either the coolest or most insane people ever.

"Many are the visitors who come to Barcelona and quite a few, on a repeat visit, have even succeeded in discovering the most hidden corners of the city. However, only those who have been here during La Mercé can claim to know the city inside-out. This is when the soul of the city is shown in the clearest way. The festival mixes the latest street events, music and dance with deep-rooted traditions, including gunpowder and Mediterranean fireworks. Do you really want to get to know Barcelona? We are waiting for you at La Mercé."

               - La Mercé 2010

La Mercé is a festival held annually in Barcelona to celebrate Catalonian (not Spanish) life and culture, and to mark the end of summer. After this past weekend, I would have to say the soul of Barcelona is definitely awesome, a little crazy, and certainly loves fireworks. The festival lasts 5 days (Thursday night through Sunday), and is a weekend filled with parades, concerts, and light shows in every corner of the city. Canada, France, and Valencia all compete in a fireworks festival on the beach over the course of three nights, followed by the spectacular "Piromusical" finale presented by Barcelona Sunday night. Perhaps the most eccentric tradition of the festival, invented with the restoration of democracy, is the Correfoc, or Fire Run.

As the program describes, it is the "great festival of fire, which starts with the opening of the gates of Hell, from which all kinds of male and female devils and fire beasts pour out, throwing bangers and fireworks, filling the city's central street with the smell of gunpowder and chasing even the boldest participants." Before the Correfoc, the street is filled on one side with spectators, and on the other with the members of the parade and groups of drummers to keep the spirit alive. Since we walked down the backside of the parade to arrive to the "gates of hell," we got to experience of the "backstage" action before the parade.

A dragon getting prepped for the parade

Betsy and I with some of the "correfoc"ers

Drummers performing before the opening

 One of the drumming groups waiting in the lineup... see you if you can spot the tourist, or "guiri":

More drummers... there were sooo many

One of the demons outfitted with fireworks - to be shot at the spectators later. No joke.

They also advise: "As there will be dragons, flames, and explosions, it's best to remain on the sidelines as a spectator, unless you know the festival well." It continues to recommend that you wear long sleeves, a cap, scarf, and avoid shorts to AVOID BEING BURNED. And they're not even joking. I realized the seriousness of this (perhaps a little too late) when I was standing near the "gates of hell" and noticed people around me wearing safety goggles, bandanas over their mouths, and hoodies. Let's just say they are a little more lax about fire safety than we are in the states. They start the Correfoc with gunshots (yes, next to kids) and then open the gates where the "devils" begin running out and shooting sparklers and fireworks at everyone. And that's basically the whole concept of the parade... which lasts for a couple of hours. Here's the vid I edited for a few snippets of the parade - It's a little long (4 minutes) but worth watching, especially if you want to see the look of terror on our faces.

The crazy part of it all was that some people would actually RUN through the fireworks and dance around in the sparks. These people are a little nuts! After miraculously surviving this crazy tradition, we started walking towards the beach to try to catch the Valencia fireworks. On our way, we found ourselves in the Parc de la Ciutadella (the park with the Arc de Triomf in one of my earlier posts) where they had lots of food and light exhibitions set up throughout the park. We noticed a group of people standing over by a laser show.

Laser show in the park near our house

We couldn't figure out what they were all gawking over until we got a little closer. There were fog machines creating a smokey atmosphere for the lasers to bounce off of and create an effect where it looked like you could touch the light. As the lasers went overhead, it created the appearance of a cloudy ceiling over the crowd. Very cool! (I had a video of this on my own camera, but accidentally deleted it. Skip to 1:00 to get to the part I'm talking about.)

 

We were so busy enjoying the laser show that we ended up watching the fireworks from the park instead of the beach. Not complaining though :)

Sunday night was the Piromusical, or the finale of the entire weekend. It took place in Plaça d'Espanya, in front of the Magic Fountain of Montjuïc (click on the links for more info on those two places).

The fountain, which has a show with music every weekend... still have yet to see!

The fireworks were absolutely spectacular. It is estimated that around 200,000 people attend the show, and of course, I was standing right in the middle of it. I have so few words to describe how amazing it was to be surrounded by all of those people and watching such an incredible display. The theme this year was well-known music through the decades, which was pretty funny because most of the music was American or at least in English (The Beatles, Stones, even a little Gangsta's Paradise...). One very cool moment was when they played Imagine by John Lennon, followed by covers of the song in different languages by different artists. I guess I missed the distribution, but everyone had sparklers that they lit during the song. Here's a video I found of the fireworks - again, it's a long one, so a couple of highlights: heart fireworks! (5:30) "Imagine" (7:20) "Gangsta's Paradise" (9:00) and "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" (10:35).
If nothing else, at least watch the last couple of minutes for the finale to get a glimpse of those show (12:30)! I think "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" (11:30) near the end was very appropriate for our trip :)

And that was only a THIRD of the show. The entire thing was around 30 minutes long. And they do this. Every. Year. What a city! No wonder their economy sucks, right?

On a related note, there's a general strike this Wednesday, which means everything will be closed and the public transportation will not be working. (They're supposed to work for at least 25%... but... let's be honest...). As my new professor put it, "the best place for you to be is either a la casa, o la playa" (home, or the beach). Guess where I'll be? But besides suggesting going to the beach, my professor seemed very cool and I think I'm really going to like the class (Literature and Cinema of Barcelona/Madrid). We're starting with the philosophy of how to "read" cities like a text of overlapping voices (metáfora de palimpsesto), and learn the subjective nature of the human experience in a city (psicogeografía). Basically, it's right up my alley. Tomorrow I start Español: Técnicas de Expresión Oral (Oral Expressions) and El Quijote y el Pensamiento Filosófico Español del S.XX. (Quijote and Philosophical Thought of 20th Century Spain). Hopefully those go well!

p.s. I think I chose the right city.
p.p.s. Anyone know of any job listings in Barcelona? I don't think I'm leaving.