The city’s public spaces turn into stages from which Barcelona fills with music. This is Sons de Ciutat, an initiative that brings free, open-air live music to the city’s ten districts. At Christmas, it offers a special edition known as Sons de Nadal, featuring more than fifty performances across the city between 12 December and 4 January.

Major artists join in to celebrate Christmas outdoors, in an experience that brings live music to the neighbourhoods and presents concerts in a broad array of styles: from jazz, rumba and urban music to folk, pop, opera and classical music (in the image, a performance from a previous Sons de Ciutat edition. Photo: Alice Brazzit).

Classical proposals, opera (with excerpts from Il barbiere di Siviglia and The Marriage of Figaro), and contemporary sounds — including Marta Garrett or Las Bajas Pasiones, to name two of the best-known acts — will resound in squares, gardens, markets and many other spaces across Barcelona. You will hear Rumba Heritage, Ikram Essaghir, Ani in the Hall, and Venus Voice among many other artists who will bring music to your Christmas and meet you right in your neighbourhood.

But the performances by the emerging and established musicians participating in Sons de Nadal are not the only Christmas musical offering. Before many of the concerts (check the schedules), you will come across youth choirs — children’s and teen ensembles coordinated by the Secretariat of Children’s Choirs of Catalonia. Take a moment to stop: these choirs will sing carols and traditional seasonal songs, and they will also perform the Barcelona Christmas Carol, composed by Esteban Navarro i Irieix, live.

The artists and musical groups have been selected by fourteen curatorial agents closely connected to Barcelona’s music scene: from Terrats en Cultura, Say it Loud, Jazz I AM, L’Hora del Jazz and the Plataforma per la Rumba to Casa de la Música, Fabra i Coats, Festival B, the Liceu Conservatory, ESEM at Taller de Músics, ESMUC, Jam Session, the Victòria dels Àngels Foundation and the Òpera Catalunya Foundation.

Do you want to hear what Christmas sounds like in Barcelona? Come to the Sons de Nadal concerts, and make sure to check all the programming on the Christmas in Barcelona website beforehand.