"La Festa Major De Gracia" - annual Street Festival in the Streets of Gracia, Barcelona
"La Festa Major de Gracia" is an annual street Festival that takes place in many streets and places of Gracia. It is colorful and fun, and really popular. The streets are full of people and, though the festival is manly for the neighbors and residents, a lot of tourists like to see the decorated streets, too, and, in the last couple of years, it has become a festival for people from all over the world.
All year long the residents of Gracia come up with a unique concept for decorating their streets. They collect all kinds of waste they can find, such as used plastic bottles, juice cartons and cork. All the decoration is hand made, fully recycled and made with love by all kinds of people. The weeks and days before the festival, you can see a the residents - many old people but also a lot of kids - work on their street decoration. Everyone helps and is welcomed to help building the amazing statues and figures. The streets also compete with each other for the highest scores, so they get motivated to create something new and innovative, and also, they often try to spread a certain message.
For one week, you can go watch the decorated streets, have a drink and listen to the amazing musicians playing all around Gracia.
Here are some pictures of four streets I visited today.
1. Carrer del Verdi
2. Travessera de Sant Antoni
3. Carrer de la Perla
4. Carrer Joan Blanques de Baix
Though the streets were full of people, I had a lot of fun walking around Gracia and looking at all the amazing things people have done. They put so many details on it and it looks like they spent a lot of time perfectionist their concept and decorations.
Walking through Gràcia streets you can taste "a different" Barcelona. It's like a little town in the big city. And la Festa Major de Gràcia is the moment of full plenitude, the most important moment for its inhabitants. Concerts, all kind of fests and the "guarniment" of several streets like you show us on your excellent post. Time to see another Barcelona.