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Photo by Andrea Moreno

Festa Major de Gràcia

'Cap Gros' at the Festa Major de Gràcia

Despite what you may think, in August it is the turn of not one, not two, but three Barcelona neighbourhoods to hold their festa majors—the Gràcia festes tend to dominate proceedings but this isn’t the only city neighbourhood letting its hair down this month.

Slightly more low-key, but still worth a look are the festes of Sants, which has its own tradition of street decoration akin to that of Gràcia but also focuses a lot of its energies on the Parc de la Espanya Industrial. Here you’ll be able to see various Catalan traditions, such as human towers and caps grossos (‘big heads’). For more historic festivities, go to the Gothic quarter (specifically around the Plaça Nova by the cathedral) for the Festes de Sant Roc. This is one of the city’s longest-running traditions and some of the activities that take place date back to the 16th century. They include la cucanya, where participants have to try and cross a greased-down tree-trunk; and glops amb el porró llarg, where the aim is to drink wine from a large version of the traditional Catalan spouted glass container.

Festes de Gràcia: 15th to 21st,www.festamajordegracia.cat

Festes de Sants: 18th to 26th, www.festamajordesants.cat

Festes de Sant Roc: 14th to 18th, www.bcn.cat