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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.
Check Hotel Prices & Availability in
Girona
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 information.