Geeks of the world, Barcelona is your city. The Catalan capital, in recent years, has been welcoming with taste and desire spaces in which to give free rein to those hobbies related to fiction, fantasy or animation. There are more and more plans inspired by sagas such as Harry Potter, Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, and every now and then, new geek stores open where you can buy that Marvel or Disney Funko that you are missing to complete your collection.
There are events such as the Salón del Manga, the Salón Internacional del Cómic or Bubble Pop, the first festival in Europe dedicated to Korean music, which have a start and end date. However, Barcelona’ s nerd offer goes beyond specific activities: the city offers geeky plans from Monday to Sunday, 365 days a year, and a free day on leap years!
Geeky stores for all tastes
From comics to badges and pins through board games, plastic figurines or cosplay costumes. The variety in merchandising of the most beloved movies, series and video games is practically infinite.
In Barcelona we can find many geek stores full of the most bizarre products, and there is even a shopping center dedicated exclusively to these geeks!
Frikimania (Rambla de Poblenou, 47), Encantoos (Calle de Pérez Galdós, 8, Hospitalet) or Galeries Maldà (Carrer del Pi, 5), with establishments such as Carreró Maldragó, dedicated to the Harry Potter universe, or Super Friki Market, a supermarket full of knick-knacks and gochadas made in Japan, are our favorites (and those of the Barcelona public).
Role-playing games between beers
Nothing feels better than a cold beer to refresh your mind while you think of the best strategy to win at Risk or Catan. That’s why bars with board games are so popular in Barcelona and wherever they are located.
You ask for the card and the board of the game you like the most. You get together with friends and have a drink while you play a fun game. It is a plan without fail that, luckily, can be done in several places in Barcelona.
In Queimada Nivell Q (Carrer de la Independència, 323), one of the pioneers, you will find more than 600 games on their shelves and in La Iguana (Carrer de Rosés, 46), you can sign up for their Trivial Molón, one Thursday or another, to test your general culture.
Quidditch matches
If you thought, proudly, that you were the geekiest in your neighborhood, you come to this article and realize that there are people in Barcelona who participate in quidditch championships, the sport invented by J.K. Rowling to make Harry Potter a kind of flying Messi.
The Associació de Quidditch de Catalunya, founded in 2014, has several quadball teams (its official name since 2022) that compete against each other with sticks between their legs as broomsticks and balls instead of golden snitches.
If Pokemon Go wasn’t enough, this peculiar sport makes it clear that geeky plans don’t have to be sedentary.
Geek concerts by candlelight
You may find the idea of watching a classical music concert by candlelight sappy, cheesy or even cloying. We don’t blame you. It’s true that it’s a romantic plan and is attended by engaged couples who leave the evening engaged. But, in addition to an ideal place to propose, Candlelight is the perfect place to unleash your geeky side. Don’t you believe us? Take note.
The candlelight concert series pays tribute to great classical composers, immortal rock bands and current pop artists. But that’s not all: do you have a thing for Game of Thrones that makes you think of an episode every few minutes, or have you been as fond of Bilbo as you are of your brother ever since you saw Lord of the Rings? Candlelight has the perfect concert for you.
In addition, among its many tributes you will also find some for movie buffs. Enjoy a musical journey through the sets of your favorite movies —westerns , fiction or even anime— in a unique environment and with the most talented classically trained musicians.
Escape rooms to bring out your geek side
If there are geeky stores that, set in your favorite series or video games, get you excited like when you were a kid, imagine an escape room. In Barcelona there are several escape rooms inspired by some of the blockbusters of recent years whose sole purpose is to make you feel like you’re trapped inside your favorite movie.
For example, La calle de la magia, by the Get Out group, is set in a magical world that could well be Hogwarts and is perfect for adults and teenagers. For the youngest, Alice in Wonderland, by Aventurico, is the perfect approach to the work of Lewis Carroll and the films of Disney and Tim Burton.
Undoubtedly, a different (and very original) plan to have a great time with friends or family and bring out your geeky side.
Parties and themed restaurants
The negative connotation of “geek” is a thing of the past. The term has evolved from its use in freak shows and now occupies descriptions on Tinder, prints on T-shirts and even describes the aesthetics of certain establishments. For a bar to be considered a geek bar is, in principle, quite a compliment.
In Barcelona there are more and more geek bars and restaurants whose decoration, ambience and even menu pay homage to some element of underground culture or pop culture.
We speak, for example, of El Bosc de les Fades (Pasaje de la Banca, 7), a bar out of a fairy tale that leaves anyone who is captivated by its charm open-mouthed. Or Mutenroshi Ramen (Carrer Sant Agustí, 10), a place to try (perhaps) the best ramen in Barcelona, which is also set in the Dragon Ball series.
Another ideal place if you like manga, anime and Japanese culture is Akihabar, the first otaku music bar in Barcelona. A space to dance without prejudices created by the organizers of the Atomic Pixel Party, which has been filling Barcelona’s nightlife with cosplays and fun for several seasons now.
Bubble Planet or how to travel to another planet
There is nothing more geeky than living on another planet. And that’s exactly what Bubble Planet proposes, the new immersive experience in Barcelona where you can live for a few hours on a planet full of bubbles and fantasy.
Here you will find giant balloons, huge soap bubbles and even a hot air balloon ride simulator, everything to do with air-filled spheres! An immersive journey through different themed rooms equipped with virtual reality technology that will make you disconnect from the real world and live in your bubble for a while.