La Merce is probably the best thing ever on earth. Easy to get to, loads of hotels and the like and loads of events to keep people happy.

What is it?

Well it is lots of things. The day itself is a Catalan national holiday (September 24th) and will usually finish closest weekend to the day, which should mean this year the following Sunday. And they never confirm exact dates till a few weeks before, well they did well early this year just after i booked.

Catalan elections on Sunday 27th mean it actually finishes on the 24th itself, which means we will miss a few things this year, and by the looks of it one of the major highlights, the ‘correfoc’.

Merce is the joint patron saint of Barcelona with Saint Eulalia.

Over 600 events take place with loads of free music, a wine festival linked into the festival, the correfoc which is basically a fire run with devils and beasts (look on youtube for the madness of it), Castellers (human tower building) and Trabucaires (people with blunderbus type of guns – it is very loud so wear ear plugs…). Fireworks on the beach and will normally finish with a Piro Musical which is a firework, laser, water and musical display at the magic fountain just up from Placa Espana on the way into Montjuic.

And a hell of a lot more.

Try and experience it once in your lifetime, it is really worth it.