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Castelldefels strengthens Sant Joan security and limits fireworks
This year's Sant Joan eve arrives in Castelldefels with more restrictions, more surveillance and clear concern over extreme heat. The municipality has decided to limit firework sales and reinforce police deployment on a night that usually concentrates thousands of people on beaches, squares and streets.
The most striking measure will be the ban on setting up mobile stalls selling firecrackers in the days before the celebration. It is the first time the municipality has applied a restriction of this kind, with the aim of reducing the use of pyrotechnics and minimising the risk of burns, fires and accidents during the night.
The context weighs heavily in the decision. Forecast high temperatures, with values that may be around 36 degrees, and the risk of fires have led metropolitan councils to exercise extreme caution. Sant Joan will remain a celebration, but this year it comes with more controls than in other editions.
Castelldefels will also deploy a reinforced security operation with more than 200 personnel from the Local Police, Mossos d’Esquadra and private security. Surveillance will focus especially on sensitive points, such as Plaza de las Palmeras, where disturbances and acts of vandalism were recorded last year.
The City Council wants to prevent scenes of tension, objects being thrown, damage to urban furniture or small fires caused by irresponsible use of pyrotechnics from being repeated. The combination of many people in the street, accumulated heat and flammable material requires action before incidents appear.
Other municipalities in the metropolitan area have also begun to act. L’Hospitalet will reinforce the police presence to prevent barbecues in public spaces, a practice that already caused problems during the last eve-of-feast celebration and that worries people even more this year because of the weather conditions.
Sant Boi, Gavà and Viladecans have intensified precautionary messages to the public. The common recommendation is to avoid any behaviour that could cause a fire, use pyrotechnics carefully and respect restrictions in areas close to vegetation, parks or forested areas.
The Barcelona Metropolitan Area has also been working for weeks on prevention tasks in forest environments near residential areas, with actions in municipalities such as Sant Cugat, Gavà and Torrelles de Llobregat. The eve-of-feast celebration is experienced on the beach and in the street, but the risk is also in the nearest natural spaces.
Sant Joan will continue to fill the night with bonfires, music and firecrackers, but climate change is changing the way the celebration is organised. In municipalities such as Castelldefels, the priority is no longer only managing large gatherings of people, but doing so in a context of more intense heat, more vulnerable vegetation and less room for improvisation.