La Mercè is Barcelona's patronal festival and the fullest display of Catalan popular tradition in one place: castells, the human towers built by colles from across Catalonia in the Plaça Sant Jaume; the correfoc, in which devils and dragons run through the streets throwing fireworks at a crowd dressed to be burned; gegants, capgrossos and the Ball de Bastons; and the sardana danced in circles.
Alongside it runs a large free music programme including the BAM festival, and the whole thing closes with a piromusical at Montjuïc.
The city publishes figures per edition; we have not collected a dated one here.
The dates sit around 24 September. Everything is free, which makes it the most accessible major festival in Spain — and the city, already at capacity in September, is noticeably fuller for it.
PlanningFixed around 24 September, the patronal feast — the city's largest free event of the year.
Dates
computed from the rule
Computed from the recurrence rule we record for this entry, not copied from a listing. A date marked ~ comes from a calendar conversion and the observance may fall a day or two either side.