From the title, you get the idea. La Mercé is the annual festival of Our Lady of Mercy, one of the patronesses of Barcelona. It spans a week, this year Sept. 18-24 and there are more events than one person could get to. We went to see the giants and the giant heads before they emerged. They don’t march in a parade, they dance down the street.
The attendants are “Big Heads”
Music is provided courtesy of the Middle Ages, a chorus of oboes, bagpipes, and other loud and squealing things.
Maybe that’s why she carries a pig. It was part of the band!
This was the first parade. The next parade was monsters and devils. We saw some of them in advance:
They looked more threatening at night in the street:
Several of the dragons, including the angry dolphin, squirted water on the crowd.
There was a drum group with almost every dragon, a group of 10-16 people, more than half of them women. They made a wall of sound and danced at the same time, some groups more choreographed than others. Impressive.
Llywindatravels 2022 