Expatiperro

This week, Barcelona is celebrating the Festa de la Mercé, which commemorates the patron saint of the city. While supposedly a religious festival, it seems more dedicated to celebrating Catalan culture and heritage, and to that extent, there have been cultural expos, food tastings, concerts, and street fairs going on all around town.

By far the most exciting and terrifying of these events is the Correfoc, or Fire Run. I'm a little unclear on the significance behind it, but it consists of hundreds of people, dressed up in Devil costumes, running up the main street, shooting fireworks at each other and into the crowd on the sidewalk. At the same time, ranks of drummers marching behind them banging out martial beats, while huge dragon figures dance down the street shooting sparks out of their mouths. And the crowds, despite the flying sparks and loud explosions from the fireworks, stand their ground and looking like they were having a fantastic time.

Like most great travel adventures, we hadn't planned on going to this ahead of time, instead stumbling onto the parade after seeing some quaint and decidedly tamer Catalan folk dancing in the town sqaure before. Needless to say, it was a little shocking to find ourselves caught right in the middle of it, but I did manage to take some pictures.

One of the parade comapnies, spraying the crowd with sparks

Ducking from the sparks. At least one person is wearing a safety mask!

Looking down the street at the back of the parade. The ambulance on the right was the only one that I saw.