La Mercé

For the last week or so, Barcelona has been transformed into a party city on an even grander scale than usual. La Mercé is a festival where thousands of people, locals and tourists (tourist season is still going strong!) gather to participate in hundreds of events all over the city. It´s incredible!!
About La Mercé from barcelona-tourist-guide.com:

Barcelona La Merce lasts for around 6 days and is a festival held in honour of Mare de Deu de la Merce, the Patron Saint of Barcelona.

The festival, which officially first took place in 1902, bids goodbye to the summer with a bang and welcomes in the cooler months of autumn.

Today there was a parade of giants to finish off the celebration. A description from virtourist.com:

The most typical folklore icons of Catalonia are the 'Gegants' (=giants). Each town has its own couple of Giants. Big towns, like Barcelona, have several couples.

During the Barcelona festivals they dance and walk along the streets in the center of Barcelona, accompanied by the 'Cap Grossos' (=big heads). One strong man supports the heavy 'gegant' for several hours.

On other days, there are events like the correfoc (¨fire run¨). Those who don't know what they're getting in to (that was us) are surprised to be assaulted by people chasing them with firestorms of shooting sparks. And it was fun!! Here´s how it´s set up: first, one of the largest roads that leads to the sea is closed off and opened to the ¨devils.¨ These are people from different groups in the community dressed as devils or carrying large sculptures. They run down the streets with powerful sparkler fireworks, chasing people and shooting some massive sparks at the crowd. The sculptures shoot sparks out of their mouths, while the people dressed as devils carry huge sticks with spinning sparkler fireworks, creating a umbrella of future burnt wardrobes. When you see people on a hot night wearing hoodies, scarves, gloves, jeans, and boots, you´ll know that they are prepared to have a lot of fun being chased down by the devils. Though we didn´t have our cameras, I found some good pictures on flickr.com that you should absolutely head over and see:
http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=correfoc%20merce&w=all&s=int



Here are some photos from the parade which was today, the last day of the festival. As always, click to enlarge:

So many people on Las Ramblas are seen trying to get a good view

Problem solved! I love this picture.

Opening the parade is the ¨Guarda Urbana¨ band on horses.

That horse probably did not have a good day..

They just look thrilled!

not getting paid for this...

Somebody caption him please!!

Pipin´ like there ain't no tomorrow

The giants coming down Las Ramblas. The yellow sign is the poster for La Mercé.

A royal couple, I suppose.

Why he has a BMW and Alfa Romeo badge set, I do not know.

Seasons! They danced quite a bit

This was the loony pirate ship.

li´l devil! Kids got to dress up, too

Magician giant

This sucker shot at us at correfoc!!

As did Gaudi´s lizard!! How dare they show their faces...

Woo Africans!

Old lady with a big ol´ booty.

! oh my

What a silly guy!

I guess they have to put a friendly one in for the kids.