Barcelona Travel Guide

Carnival is celebrated in the winter season. For many Catalans this was one of the best demonstrations of their freedom, to show that the city was theirs again. (It was forbidden to celebrate Carnival in Barcelona between 1936 and 1980, begun during the time of General Franco).

In many countries carnival is celebrated on the streets and people make big colourful processions and lots of noise. Some people ride on floats and have fun. They throw confetti and paper streamers at one another. Carnival is celebrated in cities, in the country and in villages, but it is most popular in the big towns and cities. It is celebrated by painting faces, or wearing masks, as well as a disguise or fancy dress costume. people go on parades and sometimes organise parties.

Barcelona’s Carnival is not very important, at the moment there is no central parade - individual districts organise and hold their own. At night-time, during the week before Ash Wednesday the streets are full of people dressed up and many parties are held (the most popular of which is usually held in the Spanish Village - Poble Espanyol - on the Saturday night). During the day children’s carnivals are organised and most schools let the children go in fancy dress on the Friday before Ash Wednesday.

Vilanova i la Geltrú and Sitges hold very big Carnivals and very wild parties.The floats and processions are well worth a visit. 

The Carnival at Sitges

The Carnaval at Sitges (pronounced “Sit-jez”) is one of the outstanding events of the Catalán calendar. For more than a century, the town has celebrated the days before the beginning of Lent. Up to 250,000 visitors from Germany, Britain, Catalonia and the rest of Europe converge, ready to party and be amazed by each other’s good-time spirits. Fancy dress, feathers, sequins, and plenty of skin make this a electrifying event. The party begins on the Thursday before Lent with the arrival of the King of the Carnestoltes and ends with the Burial of a Sardine on Ash Wednesday. The Grand parade has over 3000 revelers and 40 floats. Sitges has a large gay community, but this is not a particularly gay Carnival. However, amazing and glamorous drag shows can be found, and both the straight and gay press consider Sitges Carnaval a wild party. The Sitges Carnival will entertain even the most demanding reveller.

Sitges lies about 40 km south of Barcelona and is one of the most popular resorts of Southern Europe. Sitges has long been an artist community; among the notables who frequented Sitges were Salvador Dalí and poet Federico García Lorca. Nearly everyone in Sitges speaks Catalan, and Barcelona families take over the resort town during the peak summer months. Sitges has more than 4,500 hotel rooms (half of them in four-star establishments), 1,500 rental apartments and 3,000 campsites; it can be difficult to find accommodations there during the summer months and the during the Carnaval. There’s 17 beaches (including a gay beach and a nude beach), an active gay nightlife and a busy festival calendar.

31 January 2008 - 06 February 2008
Parade : 3rd & 5th February