Barceloneta’s Fiesta: Last Weekend in May

Barcelona is broken up into Barris or neighborhoods, and each neighborhood has a fiesta at least once, if not several times a year.

Fiesta Barceloneta

At 8am this morning I was awoken by the beating of a marching band drum and the trumpeting of horns…..’What’s going on!?’ I said, sitting up in bed (ok, my exclamation may has been a bit less G-rated at 8am, but anyway…).

Then I remembered: The Barceloneta Chorus Party is all weekend beginning today, Saturday – the last weekend in May. Every year this neighborhood party happens and people really get into it. Unlike your typical block party with potato salad and BBQ, Barceloneta’s fiesta is a three-day event where people dress up in costume and dance, sing, march and play music in the streets. There’s also a lot of beer drinking that begins early in the morning.

It is impossible to come across this festival and not get carried away in its festive vibe. Everyone, young and old, are getting down in the streets. The singers perform and march all day Saturday, take a break Sunday and come back for more on Monday (a holiday in the city).

Most of the band members are very good, but there are a few trumpet players that one gets sick of come day three, and I suspect they don’t really know how to play the saxophone, but are giving it their best all the same. In the past the dancers and ‘musicians’ were all men, but nowadays there are women’s groups too, shakin it down the calles.

In Spain there is a party every day of the year. This Barceloneta party is just one of many in what will be a summer full of different reasons to celebrate, but is worth catching if you can.

More: Head to Barceloneta Metro stop and go inside the neighborhood – the party is everywhere!