Sometimes I stumble on free 'The Hives' concerts...after seeing a parade of fire in Barcelona...

I had heard, many times, that La Mercé, the festival that went on this past weekend, was absolutely fantastic. I read in my books that it absorbed the city of Barcelona for 4 days and astounded even the people who had been to the festival all their lives. I really didn't think that all the hype could possibly be true, but again, Barcelona has proven me wrong. La Mercé is probably the coolest festival I have ever seen in my life. It is more then astounding. It is awe-inspiring. There are free concerts in every neighborhood, including big names like The Hives, there are magicians, jugglers, parades of giants and fire, human castles and much more.

You are probably wondering what the hell some of these things are, so I'm gonna hit you with some knowledge about the really cool things. First of all: the Fire Parade. In catalan it's called the Carrefoc, and basically there are hundreds of people that walk down this street with GIANT sparklers, they spray fire all over the street and people run underneath them. So when we got off the metro on the stop for the fire parade we really had no idea what to expect. On the website describing the run, they warn people about the danger of running in the fire and explain that those you attempt to do so should cover their entire bodies. The boys decided that they were definitely entering the run, because obviously what could be better than running in fire? But, instead of looking like they were about to run in fire, somehow they ended up looking like they were going to rob a bank. Pretty similar - I guess.
So like I said, we had no idea what to expect, and as we walk off the metro all we can see are hordes of people and very strange satanic music and definitely gave me the chills. Apparently, the fire run is supposed to symbolize hell, but I am not really sure why. Anyways, we make our way down the street and see people dressed up with scarves around their necks and full sleeve shirts. Finally the sparklers begin and what ensues is probably the coolest thing ever. Dragons breathing sparklers of fire, people dancing underneath the fire, people with sparklers everywhere taking over the street. I don't think words can quite describe the craziness, but you could definitely tell who the foreigners were because we were the ones scared shitless in the corner of the street hoping that we didn't die from the fire.

After the awesome fire parade, my friend and I made our way to one of the concerts held in the city. Our spanish friends had told us where we should go, so we hoped that we could find something sort of good. When we got off the metro this time, we walked into a crowd of 1,000,000 people all standing on the street, drinking, laughing, singing and just having a good time. We decided to make our way to the front of the crowd so that we could see the next performer. Getting to the front, we had honestly no idea what to expect from the performer, considering we thought that they would be spanish. 2 minutes later the banner is dropped and we absolutely couldn't believe our eyes...The Hives. What were the odds that we would know the band playing at this free concert in the center of barcelona? not much, but somehow we continue to get lucky everywhere we go in this city. The concert was, as I am sure you can believe, absolutely incredible. And we left sweaty but fantastically happy at what we had stumbled upon.

The next morning (sunday), we woke up early to make our way to Plaça San Jaume where we heard the Castellers (human castle builders) would be. We camped out for a while, and then they began. I am going to try to explain this as well as I can, but the spectacle just can't be described. Basically, there are groups of about 200 people who use their bodies to create castle type objects. They climb on each other's backs and shoulders demonstrating incredible balance, team work, and strength. What's crazier is that the team consists of men, women and children. The strongest stay on the bottom, the smaller men climb up to create a base, and then the women balance on their shoulders while the kids complete the structure. It's breath-taking.

After watching the competition of 3 casteller groups, there was a closing ceremony for la Mercé. It was held right in the center of the city in Plaça de Espanya. There was thousands of people -- the closing ceremony was by far the best fireworks show I have ever seen in my life. There was music and the fireworks and fountain in the center all went together to create an absolutely beautiful show. I cannot believe that one city could do so much for one festival...but I guess Barcelona doesn't fuck around.

until next time....
xoxo