one out of many but at the same time one of the biggest fiestas in barcelona is mercè. it took place last weekend and lasted 4 days. while friday is a holiday it starts on thursday and goes on till sunday night. it combines folklore and modern stuff and is more or less a accumulation of many other festivals as the BAM (Barcelona acció musical) or the Festival de Músics de Carrer. the city just doesn't sleep during mercè and the metro is running all night long.

At mercè there you'll meet Giants in the streets and castellers. to explain it a little: people are forming towers or castles out of themselfs up to 5 flights high. on the bottem strong men, on the top lightweighted children they are quite impressive and sometimes they crash. unfortunately i didn't see any of them, i rather went to
concerts. Still there is a picture of some giants i took.

Yes, the concerts. i expected something but not something that big and good. Almost every place in town was cramped with people standing in front of stages and were enjoying themselves while dancing, drinkin and chatting to each other. one of the biggest concerts took place in placa catalunia and it was one of the best ones i've seen for a long time. You won't probably know the artists: La Mala Rodriguez and Macaco. In between they came up with a remarkably good dj for the pause. Did i write earlier that they only listen to bad music over here? This night i learned
the better. For more information see the website of the
mercè.

Oh, and than one of the most important things is of course the correfoc. this is catalunian for "running fire" and this is to be unterstood literally. people and kids are carrying heyforcs and sticks with lots of pyrotechnic articles stuck on them who were cirling and firespitting while people are dancing and taking showers in a rain
of sparkles. they are of course all propperly dressed up for this; whiches hats, mummed and hooded whith whatever and with painted faces. there are dragons and rats in a long parade and there is firework everywhere. they say it is meant to chase the deamons and dragons out of the city and it has to work quite well. its noisy, dangerous and fun to watch. of course, when you see something really good like this you either don't carry your camera with you or the battery is empty. i experienced the latter, so i can only refer to the website:

http://www.bcn.es/merce

the rest of the time i (yes, i admit it) drunk al lot and had some
fun. enjoy your kirmes in germany and especially the zwiebelmarkt in
weimar.