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Everything awaiting you at the 2026 Festa Major del Casc Antic in Barcelona
The Casc Antic will change pace again from 19 June. For ten days, Sant Pere, Santa Caterina and La Ribera will fill streets and squares with music, neighbourhood dinners, gegants, correfocs and activities for all ages. One of those festivals where the neighbourhood does not merely watch: it comes out, takes over the streets and participates.
Although the official programme runs from 19 to 29 June, the atmosphere will start warming up on Wednesday the 18th with the parade of the Gegants del Casc Antic and the Bastoners. The opening address will then take place in the cloister of Centre Cívic Convent Sant Agustí, one of the spaces that will again serve as a meeting point throughout the festival.
The first weekend will place strong emphasis on music and families. On Friday the 20th there will be concerts and children’s events on General Álvarez de Castro street. On Saturday the 21st, Verdaguer i Callís will be filled with decorations, vermouth, a community dinner and a festa major dance, in that very neighbourhood-style format where the party begins in the afternoon and ends up lasting longer than expected.
On Sunday the 22nd, l’Allada Vermell street will host the Fira d’Artistes i Dissenyadors, while Pou de la Figuera square will hold a hip-hop jam. The programme thus mixes popular culture, local creation and younger scenes, something very characteristic of a neighbourhood where long-standing residents, new families, students and visitors live alongside one another.
The night of 23 June will be one of the highlights. The Revetlla de Sant Joan will bring hundreds of people together on Lluís Companys promenade for the arrival of the Canigó flame, a bonfire, music and DJ sets. It will not be just another night in the calendar: in Barcelona, Sant Joan remains the true emotional start of summer.
The second part of the festival will bring children’s workshops, musical vermouths, Pilates, puppets, circus and community dinners spread around different parts of the Casc Antic. On Friday the 27th, squares such as Pou de la Figuera and Sant Agustí Vell will concentrate part of the family atmosphere, with activities intended for children and for those seeking a quieter celebration.
Saturday the 28th will bring one of the fullest days: a community paella on the Born promenade, the Born Festival until dawn, the XXXII Trobada de Gegants from Sant Pere square, and Brazilian-culture activities at Arc de Triomf. At night, the Revetlla de Sant Pere and the correfoc between Fossar de les Moreres and Sant Pere square will provide the most intense and noisy part of the celebration.
On Sunday the 29th, the Sant Pere procession and children’s correfoc will close the main programme. There will still be a small extension on Monday the 30th, with a water party in Comercial square for younger children and a celebration dedicated to older people in Sant Agustí Vell.
The Festa Major del Casc Antic has something that sets it apart from other, more mass-attendance events in Barcelona. Here, the celebration happens in narrow streets, small squares and much-lived-in spaces, where every activity seems to draw on the neighbourhood’s memory. Sant Pere, Santa Caterina and La Ribera do not need large stages to feel alive: it is enough for them to bring tables, music and fire out into the street.