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Girona Festivals
Girona plays host to many festivals and celebrations throughout the year, and gives visitors and new inhabitants an idea of the Catalan culture and lifestyle. If you want to see some short video clips of festivals in Girona and other places nearby, I've posted some on Youtube.com just do a search under 'gironapete'. I'll add more over time.
Girona's main festival and by far its biggest is the St Narcis Fair (Fires De Sant Narcis) starting in late October until November 4th, lasting about 9 days ((From 26th October to 4th November 2007). It's named after the city's patron Saint Narcis, known locally as the 'Saint of Flies'.
It starts with an evening opening ceremony in front of the Girona Ajuntament or town hall building in the old town, in Placa Vi which gets very crowded. Giant figures are paraded through the streets and a huge, motorized Frankenstein-like efigy about 12ft tall had my kids well scared!
Numerous market stalls crop up on open spaces all over the city, the Placa de Independencia has stalls that sell books and locally produced artisan food like cured meats, sausages, olives, beer's from local micro-breweries, honey and cakes. We bought some delicious chocolate cheescake and skewers of mixed fruit dipped in chocolate! Delicious.
The Parc De La Devesa's long, wide avenues get totally taken over by a giant fairground, open every day and till the early hours at weekends, with rides for all ages and even a giant ferris-wheel or 'eye' that towers above the tall Plane trees.
At the north end of the park on a large open area called La Copa they erect a huge stage with different bands playing most nights, and surrounded by numerous shacks that sell hot food and drinks. Locals refer to this place as the 'barracks' or 'Las Barraques'. It seems that each food' shack' is run by or supports local schools who benefit from the profits made. It was busy with a young crowd when I went one cold, October night.
On one of the festival days we also went to the bottom of the Girona cathedral steps at about 9pm to watch the 'human castle' being performed, quite spectacular and a must-see. This is where the members of the group stand on each other's shoulders and slowly build a tapering-column of people with a small child being the very last person to clamber up to the top. Once the human column is assembled the whole column 'walks' up the Cathedral steps! Other group members on the ground lend physical support to the human column as it climbs.
There are many other festival events dotted around the city on different days, antique and collectible fairs are held outside St. Feliu church as well as Arts and Craft markets at the weekends, the biggest is in the old town on November 1st. with many stalls lining the Rambla and beyond selling paintings, curios and jewellery.
About late morning on the last day (4th Nov.) there's the Trobada de Gegants (meeting of the giants) these are large papier mache figures which are paraded through the streets, well worth catching. Inside each 'gegant' there's a person who walks it along the route as other group members play an assortment of instruments, mostly drums. A good place to watch it is in the old town's Rambla de Llibertat at about 11am.
The whole procession takes about one hour to pass by with each group representing a local village or town. The St. Narcis festival ends with a magnificent, big firework display on Sunday at about 8pm which is best watched from by the side of the river Ter and in front of the Auditori Palau de Congressors. The tourist office is the best place for more info and leaflets on the St Narcis festival.
Three Kings Festival in Girona
The three kings (Melcior, Gaspar and Balthazar) and their convoy which includes pages, cooks, musicians, acrobats and flag bearers set-up camp on the edge of Girona.
Flame throwers!
One of the three Kings on
his carriage.
The Girona Three Kings religious festival starts around the 5th of January and is well worth seeing if you're in Girona at this time of the year. A lengthy procession begins from Placa Catalunya and winds it's way around Girona's modern area for the next couple of hours finishing near the Girona town hall (ajuntament) building. The streets get jam-packed with locals vying for a good position to watch it, we caught it as it passed the Hotel Carlamany.
Those taking part are all dressed-up in a variety of costumes and we even saw fire-eaters. Horse-drawn carts are laden with presents to mimic the bringing of gifts to the new born baby Jesus. As each 'King' passes through the crowd on his elegantly decorated carriage he throws handfulls of sweets for the kids that wait eagerly with outstretched arms.
Easter in Girona (Setmana Santa).
It could be said that other cities and towns in Spain have more to see during Easter than here, which may be true but it still attracts many locals.
The main thing to see during Easter in Girona is the procession (Processo del Sant Enterrament) that leaves from the cathedral at about 10pm on Easter Friday. The route goes through the old town up to and around Pl. Catalunya finishing back at the cathedral about two hours later. Pick up a leaflet from the Girona tourist office with a full programme of events.
Roman soldiers, some on horseback lead the way followed by eerily dressed, cone-headed 'Confraria' who belong to the Junta de Confraries de Girona. About a dozen different types exist in total, each 'Confraria' group wear different coloured robes and head-dresses which are all cone-shaped. We watched it all go past us slowly down a quiet street in the old town, which added to the atmosphere. Each group had members, some bare-foot (as penance) who pushed heavy wooden carts showing efigies of Christ along the narrow street.
See the 'More Festivals' page for additional info.