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The 2026 Festes de Gràcia fill 23 streets with fantasy and music
Gràcia is already fully immersed in its Festa Major. Until Friday 21 August, 23 streets and squares compete in the traditional decoration contest while concerts, workshops and popular culture fill the neighbourhood. The 2026 edition brings together nearly 900 activities and turns much of the Vila into an open-air stage for seven days.
Among this year’s main protagonists is The Lord of the Rings. Five committees have joined their decorations for the first time in years to create a route through Middle-earth: Fraternitat de Baix becomes the forest of Fratergon, Fraternitat de Dalt recreates the Shire, Llibertat travels from the Argonath to Mordor, Progrés presents The Return of the Neighbourhood and Tordera brings Rivendell to the streets of Gràcia.
The rest of the neighbourhood plays with completely different universes. Berga recreates grandmother’s house; Ciudad Real remembers poets persecuted during the Civil War and Francoism; Joan Blanques de Baix pays tribute to firefighters and Joan Blanques de Baix de Tot plunges into a sea of jellyfish. La Perla, meanwhile, becomes a pirate setting inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean.
There is also room for a gigantic calçotada at Lluís Vives, an enchanted greenhouse on Mozart, the old flower sellers of La Rambla on Perill and an impossible garden in Plaça del Nord. Providència fills with vegetation with Floridència, Puigmartí travels to the popular festivities of Vietnam and Travessia de Sant Antoni reconstructs a Catalan farmhouse in the middle of one of Barcelona’s most densely populated neighbourhoods.
The most unusual proposals continue in Plaça de la Vila, which this year opts for Catalan scatological humour with Un guarnit de merda. Plaça Rovira i Trias plunges into the universe of Antònia Font and its Batiscafo Katiuscas, while Placeta de Sant Miquel plays with letters and literature. At Sant Pere Màrtir, the former Jesús committee champions children’s play without gender roles, and Verdi turns the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly into a large garden.
Music takes on greater importance as evening falls. This Tuesday the 18th, Plaça del Sol has Derrumband at 22:00 and a Soumeya session at midnight; in Plaça de les Dones del 36 there will be Catalan rumba with Els Tets at 22:30, and Glòria Ribera and Las Opinólogas will perform at 23:00 in Rovira i Trias. Llibertat is also preparing an inclusive surprise concert at midnight, performed in sign language.
On Wednesday the 19th, Todo sobre mi Gata, Halldor Mar Trio, Eskamot, Tori Sparks, Trèvol and Blú will appear at the festival. Thursday the 20th will see Meritxell Gené, Big Mama Montse & Captain’s Brotherhood, Grup D Ties and Ruïnosa i les Strippers de Rahola, while Friday the 21st the musical finale will feature names such as Koré, Al·lèrgiques al Pol·len, Karla amb K, Run Out the Closet and Akelarre.
The decorations can be visited until the final day, but Wednesday the 19th will bring one of the most eagerly awaited moments: the verdict of the decorated streets competition. Until then, the game is to walk around Gràcia, look up and pick a favourite among forests, pirate ships, impossible flowers, literature, farmhouses and marine creatures built over months by the residents themselves.