La Mercè 2024 in Barcelona: dates of the festival, concerts, pyromusical…

Once again this year, Barcelona is preparing for celebrate La Mercè, its festa major in honor of the Verge de la Mercè, one of its two patron saints. The festival will last four days, between September 20 and 24, and the city is already preparing to host all the activities that are scheduled: concerts, popular culture shows, workshops for the whole family, sporting competitions…

La Mercè 2024 will continue to retain some of its traditional events, such as the Piromusical, the Cursa de La Mercè and the Pregó, which will kick off the four-day festival. However,there are also some novelties and changes, from the new stage in Plaça Catalunya to this year’s controversial poster.

So that you don’t miss out on what’s new or, in general, anything about this festival, we tell you everything you need to know about La Mercè 2024..

When is the Festa de La Mercè 2024?

The official date of La Mercè is Tuesday, September 24 and the events of the festival will be extended for four days during the previous weekend, from Friday, September 20 to Tuesday, September 24.

Carme Solé Vendrell, town crier of La Mercè 2024

C arme Solé Vendrell, illustrator, painter and sculptor, lives and works in Barcelona will be the town crier of the city’s main festival on Friday September 20 at the Saló del Cent.

In addition to her work in illustration , Carme Solé Vendrell is the author of poster designs, record covers and interiors, scenographies and costumes for theater, as well as objects and puppets for various plays. She has also worked in advertising and has collaborated with magazines such as Pomme d’Api, Cavall Fort, Cricket and Ladybug. His collaboration with UNICEF and the creation of the character embodied in the gigantic Laia of the Barcelona City Hall in 1998 are some of his outstanding achievements.

She is the author of the dramaturgy, direction and scenography of the play Colors. Her sculptures include La más pequeña de todas (2019), Alicia (2019) and Abrazada (2022). Since 2014, she is the creator and promoter of the campaign WHY?for children’s rights, which has been exhibited in numerous cities around the country.

Recently, she has participated in an exhibition at the National Library of Madrid (2024) and has exhibited WHY?at the Museum of Valls (2024).

Casablanca, guest city of La Mercè 2024

This year, the festivities of La Mercè offer a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the vibrant Moroccan culture. From September 20 to 24, Barcelona will host Casablanca as the guest city, offering locals and visitors a taste of the music, dance, circus and visual arts of one of Morocco’s main metropolises.

This collaboration will allow attendees to enjoy both the artistic creation originating in Casablanca and the works of artists of Moroccan origin established in Barcelona, in a city with nearly 16,000 people registered in the city.

Since 2007, La Mercè has invited various cities around the world to enrich its cultural programming. Some of the cities invited in previous years include Medellin, Quito, Istanbul, Dakar, St. Petersburg, Montreal, Vienna, Stockholm, Buenos Aires, Paris, Reykjavik, Lisbon, Beirut, Havana, Rome and Kiev.

The most controversial poster: why is La Mercè a crying child?

The poster for La Mercè has traditionally been a tool used by Barcelona’s city councils to reflect their identity and mark a statement of intent that, graphically, symbolizes the changes of government in the city. This year, La Mercè 2024 is no exception.The Ajuntament has recently unveiled the poster for the city’s major festivities.

After several years of posters filled with illustrations referencing Catalan and Barcelona culture, this year’s new poster offers a different take on the festival. Instead of a still image, the poster is also a video starring a crying child, which has generated some controversy.

Therefore, in this article we explain everything you need to know about this poster.

Music at the main festival: all the venues and stages of La Mercè 2024

BAM (Barcelona Acció Musical)

This year, the festivities of La Mercè arrive with some novelties in terms of spaces, but also maintain several premiered in the last edition. The great novelty in relation to the concerts of La Mercè is the new stage of the Barcelona Musical Action (BAM) in Plaza Catalunya. The BAM can also be enjoyed on the recovered stage of the Plaza Real, in the Rambla del Raval, in the Old Estrella Damm Factory, in the Fabra i Coats and in the Plaza Can Fabra.

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As for the Música Mercè program, s the stages from last year remain the same, including the one on Menéndez y Pelayo street, in Les Corts, new for the 2023 edition, and spaces as emblematic as the Teatre Grec, the Jardins Pla and Armengol, the Plaza Mayor de Nou Barris, Avenida de la Catedral, Plaza Sant Jaume, Bogatell Beach and Avenida Maria Cristina, which will host the traditional pyromusical.

The Barcelona Musical Action (BAM) will bring the most urban music from Casablanca, celebrating the links between Maghrebi and Catalan culture, with performances by Catalan groups of Moroccan origin such as Shobe et Madd and L’Beel, as well as DJ Malika, DJ Chem Kerem and Cheb Runner.

In terms of music, the highlight is the show Maalem Hassan Boussou Ensamble & Raúl Rodríguez Ensamble, which fuses the talents of artists from Casablanca and Barcelona in a dialogue between gnawa music and flamenco. Also included are the proposals of Widad Mjama on the art of aïta, the popular Chaabi style of the Pinan 450F and the celebrated Moroccan singer-songwriter OUM.

Mercè Arts de Carrer

The Mercè Arts de Carrer (MAC) premieres location at the Moll de Mestral of the Olympic Port and at the Espigón del Bogatell, two stages where most of the shows of the Cultural Regatta will take place, within the framework of the America’s Cup.

On the other hand,the MAC returns to the Trinitat Vella Park and maintains other usual locations such as Castillo de Montjuïc, Palauet Albéniz and Aqueduct Park. The Parque de la Estación del Norte, premiered last year as the MAC’s main location, will once again host part of the street arts program.

The Maritime culture will also be held at the Parque de la Estación del Norte.
Moroccan culture will also be visible at the MAC with shows such as Iron Modvm: Casablanca by Iron Skulls, which will feature urban artists from both cities in dances and dance dialogues, and the urban circus Colokolo Cirque. In addition, there will be choreographies by Kader Attou et Mourad Merzouki, music by Imad Maestro & Ali Bamba and performances by DJ Retro Cassetta and DJ Hajar Lagranja El Kotri.

The North Station will project images about Casablanca, and four contemporary visual artists from the guest city will leave their creative mark in Trinity Park in the activity Cubic Landscapes, curated by Salah Malouli.

The Filmoteca joins La Mercè

The Filmoteca de Catalunya joins the festival with a double program: on Sunday 22 presents an outdoor amateur film screening, with a selection of titles from the first third of the twentieth century and live music. And on Tuesday 24 offers a free session of Moroccan cinema with the film Haut et fort (Casablanca beats) by Nabil Ayouch, in original Arabic with Catalan subtitles, as part of the activities of the guest city.

Setmana del Llibre en Català… at La Mercè

This year, La Mercè weaves links with the Catalan Book Week to promote and encourage reading; the paseo de Lluís Companys will be the setting for the Week.

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If la Mercè is the exaltation of the spirit of Barcelona’s village festival, few things are more village-like than having the doors of the house open to anyone who wants to cross them.

As every year, some fifty municipal buildings and museums will open their doors, and buildings like the Poble Espanyol or the MNAC have launched special promotions for the city’s Mercès.

For the festival a good number of the city’s museums and monuments open their doors free of charge, so that the people of Barcelona can add culture to the festival. The most iconic is perhaps the Sagrada Familia, which in 2023 raffled off 15 thousand tickets to visit it for free for the main festival, but also there are viewpoints like the one in Glòries, which also opened, and practically all the museums in the city.

Popular culture for all

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Remember, La Mercè is the festival that a city of the 21st century dedicates to a saint from the Middle Ages.The main festival of Barcelona is also the exaltation of the popular culture of Barcelona and Catalonia.

From the gegantsand capgrossos, through the Correfocs, the Dracs, les Bèstiesand les Sardanes, during La Mercè the secular and popular culture takes to the streets, with a program that includes centuries-old traditions, such as the initial procession of the giants precedes the mayor’s proclamation, which officially kicks off the festival. Traditions with centenary aroma that remind us that Barcelona is a city full of history.

But as history moves forward and evolves, traditions have to do so with it and that is why, from 2022, the city parades its first inclusive gegant, made so that people with functional diversity can also join the party.

The correfoc of La Mercè will take place in Passeig de Gràcia, as in the last edition, and L’Espigó del Gas will also join the celebration of the festival with various proposals of light and fire.

Learn about the festival. Why La Mercè is celebrated

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Surely you know that legend that says that in La Mercè it rains because the other saint of the city, Eulàlia, cries for not being the favorite of the people of Barcelona.

But do you know why this is so? Did you know that Eulàlia was the first patron saint of the city and then La Mercè replaced her? These festivities are the ideal time to learn something more about our patron saints, our verbena and, in general, about the history of the city. So go ahead, to read and become an expert on the city.

The La Mercè Piromusical (with music chosen by Rosalía)

The end of La Mercè is celebrated every year in style with the Piromusical, where the sky is the stage for a show that takes place in Plaça Espanya. Last year and to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the festival, festival Sónar was in charge of providing the music to this spectacle of lights, firecrackers and fireworks in the sky, with a track list that included hits by local artists such as Rosalía, Maria Arnal, Desert or Bad Gyal,

And if last year Rosalía sounded , this year the circle closes with the songs that the singer will choose as the soundtrack of the event, since the artist will be in charge of choosing the songs that will be played at the party.

📅24 September, at 22h.
📍 Avinguda Reina Maria Cristina

Gastronomy at La Mercè 2024

For some years now, La Mercè has become another excuse to enjoy the city’s gastronomy. During the festivities the city is full of gastronomic events that turn Barcelona into a culinary mecca. We leave you here some of the ones we’ve talked about so you can set up your own gastro agenda.

The sweet hunt to become the official dessert of the festival

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Since 2022, two factions fight to become the representatives of the official dessert of La Mercè. On the one hand, the Gremi de Pastissers, who created a seasonal cake with fruit that was sold in the neighborhood bakeries.

The Factors will fight to become the representatives of the official dessert of La Mercè.

On the other hand, and while the first cake was being designed, three pastry friends (Christian Escribà, Oriol Balaguer and Eric Ortuño -L’Atelier-), had the same idea and created a La Mercè cake that is a kind of croquembouche (a pyramid of macarons) dedicated to the castellers.

There is no acrimony or bad idea in this war, and the only winners are the people of Barcelona and La Mercè, which this 2024 already has two cakes (like the city, with two patron saints) to choose how it sweetens these days.

Terra i Gust, the gastronomic festival of the festival

Once again, the Terra i Gust fair will be the gastronomic spotlight of La Mercè, bringing together 14 restaurants that will offer tapas at 5 euros while promoting responsible and proximity gastronomy. This event is organized by the Ajuntament de Barcelona in collaboration with Slow Food Barcelona and AGT.

📍Parc de la Ciutadella

📅 From September 20 to 22.

Route through the restaurants with the most Barcelona food

We all know how to define, more or less, Catalan, Andalusian or Chinese food but… What about Barcelona food? We take advantage of the festivities of La Mercè to take a tour around the city in search of the food authentically from Barcelona, the one with denomination of Barcelona origin, to pay with our stomachs the tribute that La Mercè deserves.

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