La Merce

La Merce marks the feast of Our Lady of Mercy, the city's patron, on 24 September, and the festival around it runs for several days with a programme that is largely free and largely traditional. Castellers build human towers up to ten levels in the Placa Sant Jaume, a Catalan practice inscribed by UNESCO in 2010, with a child climbing to the top. Gegants, giant figures carried by one person inside, parade with capgrossos, big-heads. The correfoc, fire run, sends devils and dragons with fireworks through streets lined with people in old clothes who deliberately get close, which is dangerous and treated as such. Concerts, a castell de focs firework display over the beach and the Piromusical close the week.

What you actually see

• The castellers - human towers built up to ten levels in the square.
• The gegants parade - giant figures and big-heads through the streets.
• The correfoc - a fire run with devils, dragons and fireworks.
• The free concerts - stages across the city through the festival days.

When to go

The days around 24 September; the programme is published in late summer and most events are free with no ticket. Accommodation in Barcelona is expensive and scarce that week.

Honest expectations

The correfoc is genuinely hazardous, with burns common; old cotton clothing, a hat and closed shoes are the minimum, and it is not for children or the unprepared. Crowds at the main events are dense. The city is at its busiest.

Nearby

Events fill the Gothic quarter, Placa Sant Jaume, Montjuic and the beachfront.