Popular culture bursts into life another year with the Feast of Santa Eulàlia
On its 35th anniversary, Barcelona’s winter festival returns, brimming with traditional activities for all types of public.
Santa Eulàlia, Barcelona’s winter festival, comes to the city from 9 to 12 February with one or two new features. This year, Santa Eulàlia is spread over two weekends and two different locations, as Llum BCN will now be celebrated from 16 to 18 February in the Poblenou district.
Over the Santa Eulàlia weekend, Barcelona will host all sorts of traditional activities: cercavila processions, castellers human towers, exhibitions, giants, sardanes... The feast, now in its 35th year, will commemorate the centenary of the birth of Maria Aurèlia Capmany, one of the driving forces in the recovery of these festivities.
The castellers human towers festival, which marks the start of the season, will feature the return of the new Castellers de Sarrià group after an absence of fourteen years. Along with the giantess Laia, the stars of the Feast of Santa Eulàlia will be the Mulassa de Barcelona (Barcelona Mule), which will mark its 450 years with an exhibition at the Palau de la Virreina, and the Lace-Makers Meeting, which will be celebrating its tenth edition.
The festivities will start at Plaça de Sant Jaume on Friday 9th at 8 pm with the Protocols de l’Àliga (The Protocols of the Eagle), a procession that will end at the Basílica de Santa Maria del Mar, where there will be the traditional Ball de l’Àliga (Dance of the Eagle).
For the fourth year in a row, the city’s youth associations will be organising Lali Jove, Barcelona’s festival for young people and associations. On 17 February, Lali Jove will arrive, filled with free activities and workshops open to children and young people. There will also be a closing concert at the Moll de la Fusta, with performances by Mafalda, Sense Sal, Adala, Can Canalla and Ominira.
You can find detailed information about the Feast of Santa Eulàlia 2018 at this link.