Celebrate Sant Joan 2017 in Barcelona

If you are in Barcelona this Friday 23 and Saturday 24 June, remember to bring the earplugs. And if not the fireworks and noisy firecrackers will remind you!
Apart from this small inconvenient of easy remedy, it is good know that in Barcelona, each one lives the verbena of Sant Joan in its way. All you need to do is walk the streets and get carried away among the different popular celebrations. In addition, this year, the Nit de Sant Joan is celebrating its 50th anniversary since the Flame of the Canigó first arrived to agermanate the Catalan peoples.

The Bonfires

The Flame of the Canigó arrives at noon in Barcelona City Hall for the fiftieth consecutive year and its fire will lay on the crucible of the Sant Jaume square, where it will be accompanied by the Àguila and the Gegants of the city. At 6pm, representatives of the different neighborhoods will catch the fire, which will serve to light the 27 bonfires throughout the city. 

The return to the neighborhoods

Once the different teams of fire have caught the Flame of the Canigó of the crucible of the square of Sant Jaume, begins the return to the neighborhoods. Two festive itineraries begin. One itinerary goes in the direction of Llobregat and the other, in the direction Besòs, extending the Flame through the neighborhoods, where finally it will ignite the traditional bonfires.

Check: at least 1 Bonfire per district: Sant Joan in Barcelona 2017

The Fountains in Barcelona for Sant Joan 2017

At night, the fountains of the Passeig de Gràcia and the Twin fountains of Plaça de Catalunya, will participate in the celebration with the lighting of yellow and red colors. The colorful lighting will start at dusk on June 24, when it gets dark, and will end at midnight as the water, light and music performances are taking over the party.

Where to spend Sant Joan Eve in Barcelona

For the Saint John’s Day (Sant Joan) celebrations, on Friday 23 June the metro will run all night. Trains will thus run continuously for 67 hours: from 5.00 am on Friday the 23rd until midnight on Saturday the 25th.

There will be a special service from 10.00 pm on Friday and through the early hours of Saturday to  with trains running every 7 or 8 minutes on conventional lines, except line 4 where the frequency will be less than 5 minutes.

A Magic night by the sea with rituals

Take the most out of it and approach any of the beaches of the metropolitan area:

Sant Joan in Montgat, Prat or Mar Bella to comply with the ritual. They say that if you bathe tonight you will have health all year round. Some would say it will be better of you to enter the sea naked and backwards looking at the moon and repeat it up to twelve times… By jumping nine waves back you gain in fertility and with seven, negative energies are eliminated. Even for our peace of mind in the middle of the night if nothing else.