La Mercé

So La Mercé is a 4 day fiesta in Barcelona that takes place each September. It consists of a bunch of street parties and at many of the main plazas have concerts of all sorts – Rock, Reggae, Flamenco, American, etc . All the concerts are free and so the city shuts down on Thursday (first full day of the parties) and then continues on through the weekend. It ends on Sunday at Plaza España which is near my house. Whichever stage has the biggest concert of the night ends their show with fireworks. Needless to say, basically you party for 4 days straight. I had Thursday off from school, it was sorta like having 4th of July in the middle of the week as I had to go school on Friday. Thursday is Barcelona Day (I’d say it’s like Labor Day). So of course since Freeman was in town on Wednesday night we headed OUT. We went to a bunch of local bars and a shot bar – fear not they were fake shots with very little alcohol (Freeman can confirm this) and then to a local bar we gathered was like Cain and Ables in Austin without music called Black Sheep but cheap drinks. Friday I headed out with friends from school to a great tapas restaurant and then to Port Olymipico.
On Sunday I went to the final festivities since it was a 2 minute walk from my house for the ending fireworks show. Now, I appreciate the Wilkirson/Tally/Baker 4th of July extravaganza however, Spain has got fireworks down a whole hecka lot better than we do. My little band nerd heart was so content watching the fireworks staged to all sorts of music, the booms were in the right place and the shapes used. Only thing missing was a little Sousa but maybe next year I’ll get to add the music choreography to our festivities…… anyway here are some pics from the weekend.